He's Back: A Dionte Christmas Story

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Our last Eastern Conference team is the Philadelphia 76ers, who I was a bit rough on recently over their attitude towards the D-League.  I'll try to talk about Stromile Swift without yelling.

Stromile Swift - In fact, let's just get this out of the way.  Forget Mike Sweetney, it's guys like Swift who I rant about when I rant about D-League players getting passed over for retreads.  And in fact, Swift may have a good shot at making the team, since new coach Eddie Jordan loves veterans, especially in the frontcourt, and playing Swift over Marreese Speights would totally be an EJ move (I'm speaking as a Wizards fan, here).  That's assuming Swift hustles in practice and gives the impression that he can still contribute, anyway.  Which you look at and say "yeah, but it's Stromile Swift," but NBA teams will eventually stop calling, and after the season he had last year Swift may be motivated in case they stop calling in 2010.

Dionte Christmas - I'd say Christmas has a good chance to make the team as well, since he's from Philadelphia, went to Temple, etc., but the team has had a lot of chances to sign him by this point, and since it hasn't happened I wonder if they're just helping a local guy get noticed by other teams.  He didn't really impress in Summer League, though, as he had one good game but otherwise couldn't score consistently, and didn't do much other than shoot.  Eddie Jordan likes toughness (he brought in the Univ. of Illinois Dee Brown a few years ago to add "Chicago toughness"), so I'm sure he'll love that about Christmas, but the shot just isn't there.

Sean Singletary - Singletary is another Philadelphia guy who actually can make threes, 40 percent last year in fact (not counting the D-League, though he made three of his five outside shots there).  He averaged about four and a half rebounds per 36 minutes, which is decent for a 6'0" point guard, though the assists weren't really there and he occasionally forces shots.  If Eddie Jordan decides Jrue Holiday isn't ready to step into the backup point guard spot, Singletary could get a look there.

Brandon Bowman - Bowman spent a few years playing in the D-League and overseas after coming out of Georgetown, and he's a small forward who defends very well and made 40 percent of his threes with Bakersfield in 2006 and 36.4 percent in 2007.  The 76ers signed Rodney Carney a few weeks before bringing Bowman in, not to mention having guys like Kapono, Young, and occasionally Iguodala and Ivey who they can throw out there at small forward, but Bowman would be a solid bench option for them nonetheless.

Rashad Jones-Jennings - Jones-Jennings was the NCAA's leading rebounder a few years ago, but he went undrafted and ended up playing in Germany after appearing on Philadelphia's 2007 Summer League team.  DraftExpress has him down as a very good rebounder (makes sense) and post defender with hands made out of stone and almost no offensive game to speak of.  That description is starting to give me Etan Thomas flashbacks, so maybe EJ will find a spot for Jones-Jennings as well.  Heck, put all of these guys on the roster, why not.