76ers Searching for Iguodala’s Replacement
During the past two seasons, Sixers head coach Doug Collins always had an answer. If his team was going against a team with a great scorer, he could handle it with just one player.
Collins could take Andre Iguodala and put him on bigger players like Paul Pierce or Joe Johnson, as well as guards like Andre Miller or Rip Hamilton. Iguodala could guard anyone, and it was his ability to play defense that earned him a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
But with Iguodala now playing for Denver, the Sixers no longer have that elite-level defender on the perimeter. Oh sure, they more than make up for it with defense in the paint with Andrew Bynum. But Bynum isn’t going to come out on the wing to try and take on Pierce or Johnson.
Just how are the Sixers going to replace Iguodala’s defense?
“By committee,” Collins said. “We’ll have to figure that out when we get started. Evan [Turner] will do it some, [Jason Richardson] will do it some and Dorell Wright will do it some. We’ll use Thad [Young] in that position a little bit.”
“The great luxury we had with ‘Dre was that he was always able to take that guy,” Collins explained. “So that’s something we’ll have to work on every day. One of the things that we do defensively is that we can trap or double. We haven’t had to do that much at that position, but if we have to, we will. We’ll work on that.”
Loading ...
