Note: this will be different from my normal game recap.

I spent all day Saturday engrossed in basketball.  I played a game, officiated three more and then spent the afternoon watch college ball and a high school championship game.  When all that was over I turned on the 76ers game against the Utah Jazz.  I’m sure this won’t come as a shock to anyone, But I saw plenty of bad basketball during that stretch.  The Sixers vs. Jazz game definitely fell into that category.  So bad (by NBA standards) that I am grateful that I am not a fan of either team because there is no way that I could stomach watching them play on a consistent basis.

Philadelphia plays guys that don’t even deserve to be on an NBA roster let alone get minutes.  I know they have injuries and are in the process in building for the future, but the direction they took to do so doesn’t make sense to me.  Why trade two of your best players for spare parts and late round picks when they are young and could have been solid building blocks.  The roster they have now can’t compete with any team in the league right now.  That does give the 76ers a better chance to get the first pick in the draft, but it is no guarantee that they will get it.  In fact, the team with the worst record only has about a one in four chance to do so.  That doesn’t seem to be a fair trade-off to me, especially when the most hyped freshman class in a decade hasn’t panned out the way most have planned.  Some of the best players have even wavered on if they will even enter this year’s draft.

The Jazz are better off but not by much.  They have a few nice young pieces, but they don’t always get the minutes they need to grow.  How are you supposed to know if you have building blocks for the future if they never play together?

Watching these two teams face off wasn’t pretty.  There were 37 turnovers, some terrible shooting performances and some awful transition defense.  The Sixers only had a few bright spots in the 104-92 loss.  The main one was Tony Wroten who torched the Jazz defense for 30 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor.  The other bright spot was Michael Carter-Williams even though he shot horribly.  He scored just four points on 2-of-13 shooting but finished with seven rebounds, nine assists and five steals.

The Jazz had nice outings from a handful of players.  Gordon Hayward led the way with 22 points and eights assists. Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter both put up double-doubles. Favors registered 15 points and 14 boards while Kanter added 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.  Utah also got 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from Alec Burks in the win.

Brandon Davies is still sidelined recovering from an injured finger.

Philadelphia will be back in action on Monday as they travel to New York to take on the Knicks.