With every Flyer except for Richards and Timonen taking the weekend off, I'll try to cover a little basketball. Tonight, the Sixers play the Knicks in the teams' third meeting this season. The Sixers won the first two games with relative ease, and produced their first winning streak of the season in that home and home series. That was when the Knicks were playing some of their worst basketball of the season. Now, they're playing well and have really gained some ground on the Sixers, only two games behind.
On the other hand, the Sixers are playing some of their worst basketball of the season. They're 2-10 since the Kyle Korver trade, which is no coincidence. Although he was just a role player and there are questions about his defense, he's a great shooter and guys like him are valuable here, Utah, or wherever they might be. He wasn't as effective as he could be with a legitimate low post threat, but he was still a weapon offensively even in a down year like this one.
Consider this: Even counting Korver's contributions while he was here, the Sixers are dead last in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers made. They're shooting 32% from behind the line; Korver's shooting 35%, which is a serious down year for him. The Sixers are also 28th out of 30 in free throw percentage, at 71%. Korver's a 92% free throw shooter this year.
I'm not complaining about the trade. Korver's a role player making 4.5 million dollars. Ed Stefanski needed to make cap room so he can go out and get a great player and turn this franchise around. He was a great guy and a popular player, but finding a good shooter is easier than finding a superstar to get the Sixers back to the finals for the first time since 2001.
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