Even the 76ers' young players want the team to sign some veterans

The Philadelphia 76ers lost on Tuesday. That in and of itself is not especially notable these days, because losing is what they do. It's a little more notable because their 14-point loss to the visiting Memphis Grizzlies dropped them to 1-29 on the season, which is the worst record through 30 games in NBA history; then again, their loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday made them 1-28, which was the worst 29-game start in NBA history (we see you, 1970-71 Cavs). At this point, when we discuss the historic embarrassment that is this year's Sixers, we're really just talking about a matter of degree.

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Granted, some of the Sixers' screw-ups were particularly noteworthy. I rather enjoyed Philadelphia point guard T.J. McConnell just dribbling straight into the back of Grizzlies reserve Vince Carter, allowing Memphis' Mike Conley to scoop up the loose ball and run out for a rare fast-break dunk:

Generally speaking, though, the 76ers' miscues were in keeping with a season-long commitment to throwing the ball seemingly everywhere but to one of their teammates.

"Truly, you can write 28 [Sixers] turnovers for 36 [Grizzlies] points," Sixers coach Brett Brown said after the game, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "That could be a headline or a single-sentence article. We can all go home, and we can all go finish our Christmas shopping. ... You can recite that number as many times as you want. That is the game."

Some of that owes to strong work by the Grizzlies, who have looked a bit more dangerous defensively since downsizing their lineup by moving Zach Randolph and Tony Allen to the bench in favor of wings Matt Barnes and Courtney Lee. ("I thought the level of defensive pressure that we had, our activity was phenomenal, on the ball, weak side," Conley said after the game, according to Aaron Bracy of The Associated Press.) Mostly, though, it's a Philly-specific trend.

As I noted last night, according to Basketball-Reference.com's Play Index, there have been only seven games thus far this season in which an NBA team has committed 25 or more turnovers, and the Sixers are responsible for four of them, including two against the Grizzlies. Philly has the highest team turnover rate in the NBA by a mile, and gives up nearly 3.5 more points per game off cough-ups than the second-most permissive squad in the league.

Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie had hoped that getting point guards Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten back from their respective torn ACLs would provide more stability on the ball — or, at least, someone who could capably throw an entry pass to the post — but with neither still-working-his-way-back lead guard cleared to play back-to-backs or having performed exceptionally well early in their returns, there hasn't exactly been a sea change in the quality of Philly's possessions.

As the 76ers continue to fumble around and flub things up in their brutal and seemingly inexorable drain-circling, and as Philly brass sets about trying to spruce things up by adding respected basketball people like new chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo and new associate head coach Mike D'Antoni, the team is evidently now planning to try to add a few more grown-ups on the actual court of play. First came the reports about interest inadding greybeards Elton Brand and Shane Battier, the latter of whom retired two summers ago. Now, Philly's apparently interested in two other vets who haven't played in the NBA this season:

Head coach Brown confirmed the talks on Tuesday, but suggested nothing major was imminent, according to Matt Haughton of CSNPhilly.com:

As CBSSports.com's James Herbert noted, Philadelphia is currently carrying the maximum 15 players on its roster, meaning that any new additions of veteran players would result in some current Sixer getting cut. And yet, somewhat surprisingly, a couple of 76ers said they'd really like to see some experienced pros brought in to help carry what must feel like an Atlas-level load. More from Pompey of the Inquirer:

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Last month, Yahoo Sports senior NBA writer Michael Lee discussed the damaging effect that a lack of veterans can have on young players like Noel and Jahlil Okafor, whose off-court altercations earned him a suspension and earned the 76ers plenty of negative publicity:

While none of the names mentioned here seem likely to make a major difference for the Sixers' fortunes on the court, it does seem possible that long-tenured veterans like Brand, Battier, Hayes and Lucas could show the Sixers' roster full of inexperienced young players how to conduct themselves professionally and adapt to the less glamorous elements of being an NBA player without commanding the kind of minutes or touches that would meaningfully detract from the opportunities that young players need to develop.

This could represent a modest compromise between the All Youth Everything approach that Hinkie has taken with "The Process" over the past few years and the screams from those who want Philly to scrap its radical rebuilding strategy because, as it turns out, being a fan of a respectable-enough NBA team with no path to a championship might not have been demonstrably worse than rooting for one that almost literally never wins.

At this point ...

... even the young guys seem to think that adding some boring old guys who know how to work wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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