That we dont have a player inside the top 20 in the league in steals amazes me.

Hustle and heart create steals and this is what this team has lacked this year.

Luke is not right BTW

bruce?

Tyndale.

And I do mean "basketballs", not "salary".

nope

Would've been Tyndale before. Now, not sure - Ballinger as a dark-horse guess.

not counting Tyndale as he is not a sixer any more

not Ballinger

nope

are you thinking of icecreams?

Yep Brad Davidson leads the team in agregate and average steals.

Does anyone else think this highlights some tenancity deficiency?

He is not in the top 20 in the league which i think says a lot about the hustle of the others on the team as well.

Hard to steal the ball when you are taking it out of your basket!

It's not that we don't have a player in the top 20 that's necessarily the problem, but the team average overall - 5.6 SPG, good for second last in the league, ahead of the Blaze only. Yet we're third in blocks (and Townsville, who are second in steals, are second-last in blocks).

Recently read something about blocks being the most over-rated stat in basketball.

The theory being you take a charge, you get possesion AND they have a foul. You get a steal, you get possesion and the chance at an easy transition bucket.

You block a shot, it does one of three things- Heads out of bounds and they get it back, falls to the opposition and they get another look, falls to one of your guys and maybe you get the transition bucket.

Blocks are great and altering shots are great, but steals and charges are worth more to a team and require hustle and energy to get.

The flip side of that is playing Iverson type defence swiping at the ball as the player you should be staying in front of dribbles past you. Steals like blocks are only a stat. I'm not saying our D has been any good but it's quite possible to play good D without recording any stats by making it hard to score and changing shots not necessarily blocking them.

Agree, there is risks involved with blocking shots (fouls) and steals (fouls/dribble entry) but i think the sixers need to put more pressure on the passing from other teams. More deflections etc that create turnovers. Bowen is a great defender who has not got high block or steal stats yet he forces players into errors and poor shots.

Saying this, its not like the sixers aren't giving it a good crack right now, they have lost some close games, but the extra effort in D could make the difference in this highly competitive league.

Quagmire i remember reading about Bill Russell and the reason why he is touted as the greatest shot blocker of all time is because his team would get possesion of the ball off his shot blocks.

I saw an interview with him a few years ago where he was saying he did not understand the younger generation's desire to swat a ball into the tenth row, he was saying it was a waste of a possesion and in his mind should be a turnover as you have thrown the ball out of bounds and cost your team an opportunity to score

I do think though that steals are a reflection of hustle.

Case in point- LeBron had a huge swat yesterday, but could easily have grabbed the ball clean or at least directed it to a teamate and triggered a break.

Instead they get the ball back and all LBJ gets is the number one play of the day...