Boston-Philadelphia: Winners and Losers

At the conclusion of every series, we look back at the winners and losers.

Winners:

• Lavoy Allen. When ESPN decided to rank all 500 NBA players, someone was bound to end up last. Since most writers know little to nothing about the last guys on the NBA roster of their local team, let alone the guys riding the bench in Toronto and Minnesota, Allen was the chosen one. If we could only list one thing we learned from the series, it would be that Lavoy Allen is not the worst player on a NBA roster. Thanks to Allen, 76ers executives could well be forced to Amnesty the fat ghost of Elton Brand this summer.
• KG. How the hell does Garnett put up a 19-11 against Philly in his 17th season? Are going to look back angrily in five year’s time the same we did after baseball’s roid era? For KG to play at this level after that gruesome knee surgery defies physical laws and half a dozen international treaties. Makes no sense at all.
• Spencer Hawes. While Hawes didn’t significantly outperform his regular season numbers during the Sixers’ postseason run, he probably did just enough to ensure he gets entirely too much money this summer.
• Rajon Rondo. His numbers in the four wins: 17-14-8. In the three losses: 11-11-7. For this creaky Boston team to have any chance of winning, he has to be their best player. For that reason, Rondo has to be near his breaking point in terms of the little brother treatment.

• Rod Thorn. A week before the season ended, faced with missing the playoffs, Thorn had to be looking at breaking up his core. Instead, the Sixers squeaked in and made the most of it. Youngsters Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday showed a pleasing combination of tenacity and skill we previously hadn’t seen from them. Andre Iguodala’s couldn’t make a free throw to save his life, but other than that…he played pretty damn well. So well, in fact, that he probably made his way back into only-slightly-overpaid territory, joining the likes of Rudy Gay ($15 Mil), Gerald Wallace ($11.4 Mil), Danny Granger ($12 Mil) and Luol Deng ($12.4 Mil). Though Elton Brand did almost nothing to redeem himself, between the Amnesty clause and Lavoy Allen’s coming out party, even the PF position looks to be on the upswing.

Losers:

• Allen Iverson. You’d have to be incredibly cynical to have not enjoyed Allen Iverson’s pre-game appearance, but at the same time there was also an overriding feeling of sadness when Iverson emphasized that he didn’t think his playing days were over. In his defense, he has to have angrily watched the Miami-New York series and yelled out at least a dozen times, “I’m still a hell of a lot better than Mike Bibby, damn it!” And he’s probably right.

• Elton Brand. Easy choice, but we had to. 9 ppg, 4 rpg, and $17 million this year. He has such little lift, that if I asked you to picture a basketball player that was missing both ACLs, you wouldn’t picture Dejaun Blair (who is actually missing his), you’d think of Brand. The only bright side is that next year Brand’s contract will be expiring, giving Thorn one massive trade chip.
• Lou Williams. His numbers against the Celtics: 10 ppg, 33% fg, 18% 3fg. There’s a reason your sixth man should not also be your leading scorer.
• Anyone outside of Boston/Philadelphia. 

By Thomas Johnson (Twitter) and Michael Levkowitz (Twitter).

Check back at the conclusion of every round for other Winners/Losers recaps for each series.

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