Sixers' Ayers fired, Ford to take over
Sixers coach Randy Ayers has been fired, Stephen A. Smith of The Inquirer reports. Assistant and former Celtics head coach Chris Ford will take over immediately.
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While not that many people have been following this season, I have struggled to watch what should be a pretty darn good line-up bungle and embarrass themselves night after night.

This is not surprising, but I wonder how this bodes for Billy King? What moves do you think need to be made and who would you like to see brought in?

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Steve Johnston
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i'd like to see them hire jim o'brien, i think he created a nice team in boston before ainge started tinkering. plus, i love teams that play defense and that's his gig. it's tough to judge this roster because they've been hurt and haven't had a chance to play together often enough. if i were in charge ai would play point, i wouldn't have signed kenny thomas or buckner, and i'd try and trade snow and mckie before they are absolutely worthless.

What about McKee? I think he has been done for a couple seasons now...

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i'd definitely try and trade him. i don't think they should have signed him to that contract after his great season a few years ago. he seems like a great teammate and his value was probably as high as it could get at that point. they could have just kept raja bell or bruce bowen for much less money. i love the guy, i just think overpaying people is a bad practice.

While I'll admit I haven't followed the team as closely as I could, I was under the impression McKee was having a bit of a revival this season. He leads the league in 3-point shooting and I recall him stepping it up when Iverson was out with the knee problem in December.

That said, I'm getting to the point where I say blow the whole team up and start from scratch. I'm not sure if that means including Iverson in the clear-out or trying to build the team around him again.

I've said before how much I love Iverson's desire and toughness. He's shown that he's able to play with other big name players. I get the impression he'd like to stay with this team his whole life and, especially in today's sports culture, I admire those players. Now, all of that said, I don't know if they can win it all with him as the main guy, which isn't meant to be a knock on him.

The fact is the beatings he's taken seem to be catching up and I don't know how much longer he can keep going, which is a shame.

I'm going to tomorrow night's game, so I hope the team bounces back from the past few days and plays well.

But if we blow it up are we ready for another decade of despair? Wasn't the last one bad enough? And if you blow it up...does that only mean the players of will Billy King go too?

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i don't mean to imply that mckie is a bad player, but he's signed to a 7 year 35 million dollar contract that runs through 2008. you really need more out of a guy locked in for that long at that price. he can't defend like he used to, and korver is second in the league in 3pt % and makes no where near that kind of loot. i don't know if they'll win a championship w/ai either but i think it's more a function of shaq and duncan being in the league.

Chris Ford is a distant relative of mine (he's married to my cousin once removed) so I'm glad to see he's getting a chance. By the way, don't ask me to hook you up with free Sixers tickets since (a) they suck and (b) I only see Chris maybe once every 10 years.

I'm not so sure about blowing it up but makeing soem major changes would be nice. they needed robinsons three years ago. now they need more than just him.

Given the apparent lack of support from the team, do you think that Ford is gone at the end of the season? Did he ever really have a chance?

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