Feb 21, 2012; Memphis, TN, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Tony Battie (4) during the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. Memphis defeated Philadelphia 89-76. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE

Tony Battie: Dear Lord. We saw quite a bit of Battie. Too much for me. Every time I saw him, I had wished Lavoy Allen was playing instead. What if Coach Collins felt Battie would be better on Garnett in the playoffs? Would there be a game 7? Nah, we’d be long gon’ fishin’ by then. Yeah there were some nights where it felt like a “Battie night”. He did his job though: defend and rebound. He’s the perfect 5th big man on a solid big man rotation. I’m sure he’s given good advice, the most recent form was him helping Andre Iguodala seal a playoff game at the FT line. I just wonder why Andre doesn’t use that special “technique” more often. So yeah, in accordance to expectations and performance, Battie had a solid season.

Season Grade: B

Apr 25, 2012; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Sam Young (7) drives for the basket during the second quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-US PRESSWIRE

Sam Young: Even though he wasn’t with the team at the start of the season, he’s played more games than a few other players on the team. He came in a trade deadline deal. I always say that the Sixers basically traded Marreese Speights for Sam Young but they needed two deals to get it done. Whatever. Sam is like Battie in that he’s probably best used as a 5th wing player in a solid wing rotation. He was suppose to add much needed toughness to this team (that’s what people were saying. I wasn’t buying it). Young just wasn’t much of a factor when he stepped on the court. He shot 30% from the field and 64% from the FT line. He’s actually been okay on defense though he’s obviously no lock down player. I guess I’d be willing to keep him around.

Season Grade: C-

Mar 23, 2012; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Craig Brackins (33) dunks prior to playing the Boston Celtics at the Wells Fargo Center. The Sixers defeated the Celtics 99-86. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Craig Brackins: Don’t look so confused. Craig actually played the same amount of games as Sam Young. I was admittedly surprised he played that many games. Every time the Brackin was released, it was a blowout though. And, int he beginning of the season, there were plenty of those, so I guess it does make (Sixer) sense that he would play 14 games. Feels like 3 or 4 though. He spent time in the D-League too. I managed to watch like a couple of minutes before realizing I had better things to do in life like eating candy or listening to random songs on YouTube. In the end, Craig wasn’t any good and it’s been reported that the Sixers have declined their team option on him. He may not be back next season.

Season Grade: D

Feb 21, 2012; Memphis, TN, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Andres Nocioni (5) shoots against the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. Memphis defeated Philadelphia 89-76. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-US PRESSWIRE

Andres Nocioni: Remember him? Yeah. In the beginning of last season, he was playing a fairly big role on the team. He eventually dropped off the face of the earth team rotation in favor of Jodie Meeks and Evan Turner. He started playing badly during that season and it carried over to this season. Like with Brackins, he mainly saw playing time during blowouts. He took bad shots, he played bad defense…well, I said the bad from last season carried over didn’t it. I don’t think Nocioni is that bad though and he may have been feeling a little uninspired after falling out of the rotation. He did start a game (I had to look that up). Alright well I’m done typing stuff hoping a positive attribute will pop into my mind before I’m done this “analysis”.

Season Grade: D-

Francisco Elson: In times of injury, the Sixers thought that the best way to survive was to bring in Elson for a couple of 10-day contracts. Okay fine. Um…he played 16 minutes and scored 2 points.

Okay you know what? For Elson and Xavier Silas I’m just not going to do any grades. Not enough games to work with here. So…yeah. Oh, for one thing, both Silas and Elson have connections to heroes. Elson looks like that Frozone guy from The Incredible’s and, at least for me, I called Silas the X-Man of the team. So there you go.

I do hope you enjoyed the grades of the players this season. Was I off? On point? Were you expecting an “F” grade? I’ve got a number of off-season posts just about ready to go. In the meantime, the NBA Finals starts on Tuesday. It should be pretty awesome.

Credit: Howard Smith-US PRESSWIRE

The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, 90-85, in a shell of a game that this had the potential of being. Between the Sixers figuring it out and the Bucks playing defense sparingly, this game became irrelevant three days ago, as the Sixers clinched a playoff spot and the Bucks were eliminated from contention. As such, each team held out key players, one to rest for the playoffs and the other to improve draft position. Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, and Lou Williams all did not play for the Sixers. Ditto for Ersan Ilyasova, Monta Ellis, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Carlos Delfino, and Drew Gooden for the Bucks.

Because the importance of the match up faded to almost nothing and all of the above players sat out, last night’s game morphed into a glorified pick-up game. The players who played went for their own stats seemingly, with only the coaches giving a darn about shot selection and smart play. Given that the Sixers would much rather face Chicago than Miami, you would think the Sixers would play to lose. It was the one thing of meaning this game had. But with Doug Collins’ “winning mentality” and players trying to prove their worth for the postseason, there was some effort given to win. Also, the Bucks scrubs were worse than ours, which helps.

However, there are fun things to take from this game: the gaudy statistical results! Here’s a few to note:

- The Sixers attempted 101 shots, their most in a game this season. The previous high was 97, done twice. The Sixers scored at least 106 points in each of those games. In this one, they scored only 90.

- Despite having 101 shots fired, the Sixers had 2 players score in double figures. Two. I’m not an expert in this field, but I imagine this happens very rarely.

- Jodie Meeks (19) and Evan Turner (29) attempted more shots each that in any previous game this year. Jodie’s previous high was 16, in a game he scored 31. Turner’s previous high was 19. On his 29 shots, he scored 29 points. That’s some kind of inefficient scoring line, though he contributed on the boards and in the assist column (13 and 7, respectively).

- Also of note: Turner attempted zero free throws during the first 47:53 of the game – all 4 free throws he attempted came late, when the Bucks were forced to foul to regain possession. That’s right: 29 shots, no free throws at one point. It’s quite an achievement, and not a good thing. For someone that’s not a three point shooter, he’ll need to get to the line to justify the amount of shot attempts.

- Xavier Silas made his season debut, and played as many minutes as any other Sixers’ reserve. Of course, he tied with Craig Brackins, who also set a career-high in minutes played. They both played more than Nikola Vucevic off the bench, who started the previous 8 games. Vooch will likely not see a meaningful minute in the playoffs.

In an important development, J.R. Smith refused to allow the Knicks to tank successfully at the end of their game against the Clippers, meaning we are still tied with New York in the standings, with the Knicks having the tie-breaker. New York gets to feast on Charlotte tomorrow night. The Sixers have a more difficult match up, against Detroit, whose effort is hit-or-miss. In all likelihood, this win won’t hurt the Sixers later on, and a chance at the Bulls in the first round will still await.

And one more note: no, Brackins did not play in warm-ups. Though I imagine few would have noticed had he done so.