Deep Sixer

Why isn't there serious talks and consideration to playing Young at the PF position?

He is 6'8" 220. That is about what Shawn Merion & Boris Diaw are and you see how things are working well in Phoenix with them at PF. Dalembert is capable of doing much of what Amare does in the middle in Phoenix.

The search should be to make a move for a SG. Upgrade Green & Carney for a decent shooter who can play defense. (i.e. Tony Allen, Randy Foye, or even Delonte West) Then you save CAP space for when the opportunity knocks.

Opportunity can't wear his number 24 though because that is retired for Bobby Jones. He might have to go back to wearing #8.

people who ignore losing teams obviously do not know the meaning of the word fan. It's tough to watch your favorite team lose I know but if it's your favorite team you got to support them good or bad. You know in the world of pro sports your just a few free agent signings and drafts from being a contender look at boston after years of being mediocre at best they got an infusion of life. The sixers new staff must do something to attract the fans in the offseason, get us the biggest available free agent. As for diehard sixers fans such as myself I'll continue to support them even with their not quite ready for primetime players

Marc, I for one appreciate your blog and feel that it is intelligently written. The term "idiotic" more accurately describes some of the comments made by your readers, and it is admirable that you respond graciously to all of them.

I agree with most what you wrote in this entry, two points especially. First, people are crazy to want to trade Iguodala. He may not be a #1 guy, but I would say he's definitely in the Top 40 in the NBA, and very few players have his skill set. He's also their best on-the-ball defender and has flashes of brilliance defensively (does anyone remember how he shut Paul Pierce down one game in his rookie season? -- it convinced Bill Simmons at ESPN to name him rookie of the year). For those who want to trade him or let him walk, my question is: what are you replacing him with? Even if Thad becomes a cornerstone, you still need to fill the roster with Iguodala-type players!

Second, I agree with your point about losing with effort vs. losing without. Anyone who followed the Sixers from 93-96 can attest to how dismal the latter can be. Who can forget the 95-96 team with Vernon Maxwell as the starting point guard and immortals like Trevor Ruffin, Tony Massenburg, Derrek Alston, and Greg Sutton populating the roster? THAT was unwatchable.

These Sixers I can watch almost every night out (maybe the first Wizards game excepted). Even during the losing streak, they played well for large stretches against Utah, San Antonio, Portland, and Denver, and they were in it until the end against Milwaukee and Chicago (though they didn't play well in either game). Their defense certainly can be painful to watch at times (even most of the time), but a lot of that is due to lack of talent (not very much footspeed or agility among Evans, Miller, Jason Smith) rather than lack of effort.

I'm really glad to have found this blog and forum where all the Sixers fans can bounce ideas off not only each other but what I like most is your involvement in the process Marc. I think its really great that you actually read the comments we all make and then respond and add to them in future articles. And defintely count me in the camp of keeping Iguodala. Trading him would be a major mistake for the franchise because of what he brings to the table. Hes never going to be a Michael Jordan but I'm perfectly fine having his a number 2 guy and if we actually get to that point in the future than I think we'll definately be seeing the results we want.

Nice post Stat Man...and keep up the good work on the blog Marc. I've watched this thing grow from 1 or 2 posters to now almost 50 per blog. This has completely taken over the espn.com boards as the number one place to post for sixers fans...its a ghost town over at the espn boards these days.

Nice post Stat Man...and keep up the good work on the blog Marc. I've watched this thing grow from 1 or 2 posters to now almost 50 per blog. This has completely taken over the espn.com boards as the number one place to post for sixers fans...its a ghost town over at the espn boards these days.

Statman, you almost forgot the '94 team with Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, Andrew Lang, and Charles Shackleford. That was another beauty - wasn't Shawn Bradley on that team also as a rookie?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Trading Iguodala would be a massive mistake; he's improved every year and will be one of the cornerstones of this franchise for years to come. Much like a 5 tool player in baseball, Iggy can shoot, handle, drive the lane, rebound, pass, and play D. There are not many players like that in the NBA, and to boot, he's only in his 4th year and is 23 years old. He'll get better and better. Absolutely do not trade him.

Marc, this blog is one of the best things going on the 76ers. Thank you for providing an outlet for us fans. I do like the young nucleus for this team, and even more than that, I like the new GM. I think Stefanski has a plan and a vision of what he wants this team to be.

I think Stefanski is in a situation where he has to do some rebuilding and building of assets here, but he doesn't have to start at rock bottom because there is some young talent here.

I do wonder how this team would look if he would have been in charge of this past draft instead of BK. That we will never know, but I think he's going to do some good things, starting with this trade deadline. Handle your business, Big Ed, handle your business.

Marc, A 1-7 road trip - in which the Sixers luckily avoided facing Lamar Odom, Kevin Durant, Michael Redd, Luol Deng and Tracy McGrady - is hardly a "character" one, earning praise. And please don't promote the "play hard" tag. That attribute is fairly served with "intermittently" or "when the mood strikes" preceding it; seeing is believing.

On another subject, contrary to your stated position, as a basketball purist, I DO care how victories are achieved. And won't pay dollars to watch a glorified AAU game, regardless of the home team's standing. A synchronized team is a beautiful thing.

be patient and draft john riek and kevin love !!!!!!!

John,

Just to clarify, my point wasn't to bash Sam and I never mentioned him by name in the original post. Just look at the numbers from the Houston game. Sam and Dre each had 7 boards. The other three big men combined had more minutes than either of them and only the same number of boards to show for it. To me, that's a hustle issue, a heart issue, a fundamentals issue, or a combination of the three. In any case, there's was little "character" in that aspect of the game from those three. If this team is going to improve, it'll start to show on D and the boards, and it hasn't yet for the most part.

This further proves the point that many fans make that we need a bonafide 4 on this team. Could Young grow into that role in the future? Possibly, but we can't hold our breath and take that chance, especially with such a big off season coming up. IF we keep Sam, go out and get a proven 4, and Young grows into a beast that would play the 4 on most teams, then start all three (Young at SF, he has the athleticism to do it) and have any of the other teams in the East try to match that size and athleticism in the front-court come playoff time.

Anyway, that was my point. I hope it makes more sense now that I explained it better.

Marc,

Great blog, and I and others appreciate how involved you are. Most of the discourse here is at a pretty high level, which is rare for these types of things. Let's keep it up!

I enjoy watching this team. My hope is that Stefanski builds using the Pistons model, where there's no prima donna star and a number of guys can step up when needed. I don't want to see any one player taking 44 shots like Kobe did the other night.

For now I'm fine with building character and getting moral victories. But by this time next year, my hope is that the Sixers are a playoff team. Then the following year, a contender in the East. I'm real curious about who will be coaching the team by then.

statman was talkin bout iggy`s defense in his rookie year.....i remember willie green playing very good d in the playoff series against the rip hamilton

Ed traded Kyle Korver so the sixers could start losing more than they have been. Also to see what was "hiding" on the roster in Carney and Young. Any Basketball mind could see that the Sixers do not space the floor well on offense. Kyle Korver eleviated that situation but brings defensive players out and creating gaps in zones. Now the sixers are FORCED to work harder for every point they get. Nobody respects any other shooter on the sixers and its for good reason. What the trade also did was put an hourglass on Iggy to see what he really was. Now we get glimpes into whether he will develop into a consistent jump shooter and an half way decent half court player on offense. It also congested the paint for a player like Sammy who if you think about it is more amazing because of the lack of spacing and the fact that we dont have a power forward in reggie evans who can drop the 15 footer to give sammy more breathing room. What I suspect is that Ed is trying to get an high lottery pick. Trying to lower Iggy's number value. And bring in a "worthy" free agent of this created cap space. But the truth is...I believe the sixers were actually getting better with Korver on the team. The problem is that they would have been good enough to get that last playoff spot..Or picking at 13 14th pick with him. So I guess in the long term of things. Ed made a scwred move. Altho it could back fire and completely destroy team chemistry if he does TOO much. Contrary to belief Cheeks is doing an EXCELLENT job with the tools he was given. And they seem to actually be growing. Only move left to make now is to either watch what the sixers do as far as draft positioning. Or wait until the draft to move Miller and pray that Louis Williams can finally get over being dropped on his head by David Lee in that knicks game and start being that player we saw flashes of early on in the season...Its all going to come together as long as the sixers dont feel the need to HAVE to spend they cap money on a guy that isnt worth of it. We shall see...

Trading Korver was a mistake - this organization will come to see that. You don't "dump" one of the best pure shooters in the league for $4M in cap space and a mid to late first round pick. He clearly was not a starter, but defintitely a 25 mpg bench player much like a Toni Kukoc (who couldn't play a lick of D either).

The necessary cap space could still have been achieved via the inevitable move of trading Andre Miller. Without the Korver trade, you were still looking in the neighborhood of $18 - $20 MM in cap space. Like I said before, it seems like Stefanski just made a move to make a splash. I don't like that one bit.

I complete disagree with all the statements about how Mo hasn't been given anything to coach. Did he not accept the job knowing which players were on the roster? He knew he was getting Iverson and Webber and still took the job. That means one of two things:

a) He failed at his job the past two years. Again, if he didn't think he could coach the team into the playoffs, why take the job? So he must've thought he could win a little bit with the team. And he failed, miserably. Thus, I wish the storylines surrounding Iverson and Webber leaving looked more like this:

"Coach Cheeks has failed to make this a winning team, but instead of getting rid of him, GM Billy King got rid of both Iverson and Webber, and start over from scratch."

b) He knew he wasn't gonna be able to do anything with the team, but played coy and kept waving the "Playoffs! Championship!" flag anyway, and hoped and prayed the failure of the team would be blamed on Iverson and Webber, and that people would start crying, "Well, Cheeks wasn't given anything to work with!" Maybe this wasn't intentional, but I think this is more likely what happened. Mo, you really dodged a bullet there, you sneaky little devil...

But I'm not too upset with how things turned out. Mo's "failures" also led to Billy King getting fired... that was great frickin' day... Anyway, the idea that Mo is this pretty decent coach who was stuck with the wrong players doesn't fly with me. It was more like "Survivor", and he got Iverson and Webber voted off.

Statman, you have something brown on your nose. Kevin Love is overrated! If you want a beast of power forward, check out Micheal Beasley from Kansas State. He is a stud! His stats are similar to those of Durant last year but with better rebounding numbers.

Sixerzguy - I completely disagree with you. I don't know if Mo Cheeks is a good coach or not (amazingly after 7 years as a head coach in the league), but he clearly was put in a position to fail from the get-go with the Sixers. I don't understand how you could possibly fault the guy for wanting to come back to his adopted home to try and put together a winner (along with a pretty nice salary)? That makes no sense.

As much as I think Billy King was on the right track when he was untimely fired, he clearly was the main reason that the Sixers were stuck in salary cap hell. His big splash free acquisitions over the last 3 off-seasons were: Lee Nailon, Steven Hunter, and Reggie Evans. You just can't blame the head coach when that is your "offseason upgrade" package. No, Mo Cheeks is not to blame here - whether Stefanski keeps him or not, that's a different story. Billy King is to blame for maxing out guys like Eric Snow, Aaron McKie, Dikembe Mutombo, Kenny Thomas, and the like.

K. Love is the real deal.Every time he goes against a player that is supposed to go ahead of him in the draft,he outplays him.He had no problem getting his shot off against GOD.and D.Jordan in all the high school all star games according to DRAFTXPRESS.COM.

After 25 years and 86 (soon to be 98) seasons without a title in Philadelphia, rebuilding just isn't fun to watch anymore. We've been through this too many times now:

-Sixers post-Barkley, and, in my opinion, the entire Allen Iverson era, now post era

-Flyers pre-Lindros, last season

-Eagles - Post Vermeil (Campbell era), Rich Kotite era, Ray Rhodes' last two years, Reid's First year and obviously his last three

-Phillies - where do I start? Rebuilding and floundering from 1983 up to this past season.

We've seen enough of these of these rebuilding plans, we've seen enough stars walk away, we've seen enough boneheaded management decisions that prove to be failure most of the time. Rebuilding just doesn't excite me anymore.

I like Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith, but let's be honest, Oden and Durant aren't available each year, they're franchise-type players. These types are so much more valuable in Basketball than in football or baseball because there's only five players on a court at any time. A franchise-type takes so much more attention of the opposition, he creates opportunities for teammates in addition to his scoring numbers. To this day I would still have taken Oden with the knowledge that he would be out for a full year. Not having a franchise-type player or two might have worked for the Pistons, but how many of us expect that plan to become the successful norm in the NBA when you go up against a Boston, a Phoenix or a San Antonio? Does anytone think that the Pistons won their title because they had a major coaching edge in Larry Brown over Phil Jackson?

I predict that if the Sixers ever turn this franchise back into an above .500 club, they'll still be a few pieces short that they can't afford under the cap or exceptions. And, as we always do, frustration and dissatisfaction will implode the team into yet another rebuilding process...

Prove me wrong.

P.S. Moe will be let go after this season, and in my opinion, that totally sucks. Moe is a great coach and great teacher, evident in how the young players play for him and LISTEN. Maybe Cheeks' future should be in building a major program in the NCAA where he can maximize his niche. I'd love to see it, he's better than his record in Phila shows.

Dan C.
dpcoz@comcast.net

First, thanks Marc, I look forward to reading this blog more than the recaps via AP or the paper. I live well outside of town, and it takes me two hours to get to a game, but I still come to see these guys. I thought we needed a strong power forward for more than a few years, and clearly, this team suffers on the inside game. I also think that Kover trade was bad on chemistry, I also think it drew more light on the need for a PF since there's no draw to the outside game now. I really hope that Mo gets the opportunity to stick around a while, he's a truly good guy (who can forget him singing the national anthem with that little girl in Portland when she got flustered).
I know some will say, "sure good guy, but win some games", I happen to believe that that kind of internal decency carries over to the team and creates players that are willing to sacrifice.
This team is a bunch of scrappers. You can't overlook the effort of guys like Miller and Dalembert. Iggy should stay, how many times has he put together near triple doubles. It'd be like trading a potential Grant Hill w/o the injuries.
As far as bringing in Evans, well, seemed like Billy King was looking to the past thinking, well if I get another Tyrone Hill, we'll get better. We need a scoring PF.

I hear that shaggy williams has really been working hard on his mid-range jumper as well as his defense. He has putting putting in countless hours in pick up games at the JCC hoping to get a shot with the 76ers. He was always known for shooting to much but he is determined to become a better team player. With the help of a shooting coach and the rolling stones playing throughout the gym he can become a great player once again.

Mo Cheeks is a winner as a olayer, as a person and as a coach!

I agree with Marc's post. Obviously this is not a good team right now, but we knew that before the season started. In fact, they are better than everyone expected back in the preseason. However, my one problem with the post was: "...and with Ed Stefanski at the controls, there is every reason to believe that this team will eventually have the talent to match its work ethic."

I don't understand why everyone has seemingly bought into this whole Stefanski thing. The way I see it is that he is an executive from a team that went to the Finals several years ago, has been on a downward slide since then, has aging stars and little infusion of good young talent. Sounds an awfully lot like the Sixers, except I like the young talent that Billy King brought in the past couple of years, more than anything the Nets have. As for this "vision" for the team people speak of, I don't see it. It seems his vison is to clear cap space and sign some free agents. Well isn't that what Billy King was doing? I'm not saying the BK was great, its just that I don't see any reason to believe that Stefanski is any better. The only thing I can figure here is that Philly loves a hometown guy, so they are cutting Stefanski slack because of that.

Most of the posts I have read on here have been pretty insightful, so maybe some of you guys can explain to me why I should trust that Stefanski has some kind of grand plan to fix this team.

Bavcic, it sure would not hurt to have another big body, for fouls and screens. He doesn't have to score 10 or 15 points. A rebound here or there. Just give Sam a breather, some help, his points would be extra. He should be giving the chance to develop just like all the other young sixers.

I'll chime in Willie!!

I think that when Ed came in and did his news conference he said all of the things that Sixer's fans wanted to hear, most importantly, he said that he is not affraid to take risks to improve the team. A lot of us feel like Billy did not take enough of them, especially after the Webber fiasco. I also think that because he is a Philly guy he may even be more aggressive than he was in Jersey because he wants his hometown team to do well. I'll agree with you that his track record is not that much better than Kings but he did bring in Jefferson, Sign Kid and Carter, drafted Sean Williams, and put together some good teams in Jersey. They have been in the playoffs for the last what, 6-7 years. They have a chance every year to do something. Above all of the above, change is never a bad thing, and the team was in need of one big time.

Since we're having a love fest today, I'll say i think the discussion here is consistently at a pretty high level and i enjoy checking in pretty much daily. There are certainly some intelligent people here, but I think that's mainly because you are a good moderator, Marc.

I'll stand up and say i was one of the guys who said its possible that Thaddeus could get better than Dre...but i sure didnt mean to suggest that either one of them should be traded. In fact i think Really was just observing that the kid just seems to have that rare mix of ability, willingness to learn, and fire in the belly...plus he looks to fill out a good bit and maybe even shoot up another inch or so. Will it happen? who knows, but we need to have something to be hopeful about around here, you know?

And as long as we're talking about Mo, I'll say that i think he's a great instructor, motivator, and a great role model to boot. There are times when I've had serious concerns about his in-game decisions - especially as far as lineups and rotations - but I dont think he's a bad coach though. I would not mind if he was back next year with an improved roster. The guy who thought Mo would make a great NCAA coach may be on to something as well...

As for the roster itself, I do think they have promise. As someone also mentioned, there's been few games this year that have been truly unwatchable. Even with all the loosing, they've hung around with some tough competition and stocked up on some valuable experience. Dalembert looks to finally be coming of age, thaddeus shows great potential, the Andres are lights out most nights. Lou williams i think could be one of the better sixth men in the league. With just a few good moves over the summer, we could easily be watching a mid-level playoff team next year.

I've disagreed with people who think we should go after blockbuster free agents or trades, mainly because watching Billy try to run the team that way has been so painful. But someone here did throw out that Calderon would be available over the summer...I think its worth considering to sign him. You can do that with out even using all of the cap space you have to begin with, and if you trade Miller or Miller in a package you could easily absorb a blockbuster at that point. Because now he's expendable and the guy we've brought in is even better in ways the help us (ie, three point shooting, low turnovers) Let you imagination run wild at that point...

A lot of good comments here so far, so here are mine (hopefully) - Korver move does hurt the team from winning, but also frees up money is the convaluted world of pro sports. For the Sixers right now, winning is losing. How many more Rodney Carney-type players do we need picking in the 'teens? Thaddeus may turn out to be a decent playa. Lou Williams has major hops and hopefully will develop consistency, Iggy needs to be a better ball handler to increase his value at his position. The flashes that Sammy shows still mask an overall poor understanding of basketball and Willie & Reggie can't shoot straight. All this said, Eddie "the Shot" is hopefully giving us one, so let's see the moves over the next month and then what we do in draft & free agency. Then we can talk wins!

Hey, you guys remember Johnny Dawkins?? I forgot about him and then I saw him on the bench beside Coach K and the thought passed through my mind "how great would it be to have JD here as an assistant coach" He was great when he was here!

That might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You are saying the likes of Glenn Robinson and Kenny Thomas and the draft choices we didn't have were better talents than Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson? Are you for real?

Billy King had 10 years to build around one of the greatest talents to play the game and he couldn't pull it off. He and Brown mired this organization for years by giving away draft picks for aging vets and signing players who never warranted extensions (Kenny Thomas, Steven Hunter, Korver, Willie Green). Ask yourself this. Would Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio or Detroit ever sign those guys to big contracts? Then why complain about losing Korver? Is it some kind of man-crush? I mean, he's handsome, but still just a decent shooter.

Marc,
Thanks for your blog, and I believe every one of your articles are worth the read. I may not always agree, but you make some very valid points. I also enjoy articles by some of your colleagues- Phil Jaz and Johnny Smalls in particular. Thanks for being fair to Mo Cheeks, as I believe he needs props for his achievements as coach, while criticism for his mistakes. I also respect your graciousness to the person who wrote in calling you names.

It's not just me. There are plenty of passionate Sixer fans out there. Continuing with the love of this blog, I cannot believe the number of intelligent postings. This blog is growing faster than Shaq's butt. Don't worry my Sixer bruthas we will have our day.

You cannot deny that the team was better with Korver... that much is obvious to everyone. Do you realize we have no shooters on our roster right now? None. Add to this the fact that we didn't get enough in return for him and, well, it's fair to say Ed's first move was a questionable one. Heck, why couldn't he have waited a few more weeks... 'til closer to the trade deadline when GMs are starting to scramble and are willing to give up more for what they want?

Off-topic post - a note of interest, for all of us idiots who shell out the cost for ESPN insider, it's interesting to note that anything in the insider 'rumor mill' regarding the Sixers usually uses Marc's posts in this blog as their main source.

Also, in my last post, I meant to note 96 seasons rather than 86.

Dan C.

I agree that BK made some pretty bad moves, but many teams signed many players to bad contracts. Marbury, Nene, K-Mart, Francis to name a few. We are at the point now where many teams are feeling the pain for those mistakes. Many of the players we are praising today are ones that BK helped bring in.

I'd like to see Mo get at least one more year. The team he's running out there every night is a bad one. I disagree with SixerzGuy's assessment. Mo took the job because he thought he had a good relationship with Iverson, who was on a team is in his adoptive home town. That year Iverson and Webber were the top scoring tandem in the league, but they couldn't play defense. Then after the season, Iverson admits to taking advantage of his relationship with Mo. Mo thought he was walking into a job with two veteran leaders and they came up small in that department. I don't know if Mo is the guy to lead this team to the championship or not, but I would like to give him another year to improve this team that, presumably, will have much more talent on it.

Willie, Korver, and Hunter all make under 5 mil a year, how are they big time contracts?

Kenny Thomas basically had to be resigned since we gave up a 1st round pick for him and were over the cap so we couldn't sign someone else. He isn't our problem anymore anyway. Atleast some good came out of the Webber trade.

Considering we are still paying Webber's contract this year, yeah he still is our problem.

Ok, for all the KK lovers, I have one question...do you think this team was headed to the playoffs before we traded the former 2nd round pick, luxury shooter for a future 1st rounder and cap relief? Like, honestly? Why, because we had a string of victories? Um, back-to-back against the Knicks? Puhlease, four of us and Dalembert would give the Knicks a headache right now.

So please don't shovel poo like, "trading Korver ruined our season." Billy King ruined this season years ago by extending people like Kenny Thomas and thinking 2nd round picks like Korver and Willie Green could be the future of this team.

I've heard a lot of ideas about how to improve this team, but none of them have been very realistic. What big-man is going to be out there in free-agency that the Sixer's can sign with the $10 million they are now under the cap?
(Don't say Brand, who has a player option of $16 million next year.)
$10 million won't get an All-Star, but is there anyone out there worth $10 million?

If Korver was here then Thad wouldn't be getting as much PT. Have all the Korver trade whiners factored that into the equation?

Frank, it's not just $10m. As in the case of a trade, it's the money plus any contracts we need to add in to come within 25% of "X" player's salary. To answer your question, there isn't a big man on the unrestricted free agent market that is worth that money to me. The restricted list has a few names that I would consider. Most I wouldn't offer $10m to, but they would interest me:

Josh Smith
Emeka Okafor
Luol Deng
Ben Gordon
Ronny Turiaf
Jose Calderon

The sixers get a big man via trade, or sign and trade or draft. Ed, don't mortgage the teams future again by signing average players to above average salaries. There is no one out there on the free agent market that's worth $10mil. Craig your list:

Josh Smith - 5-6mil
Emeka Okafor - 4 mil
Luol Deng 5-6 mil
Ben Gordon 5-6 mil
Ronny Turiaf? Who is this guy? until further review 3-4mil
Jose Calderon 4-5 mil

Of course some loser team will sign all of these players to much bigger contracts, I think that this is where these players value lies f not then less these amounts. Craig who on this list would you offer 10mil too? These guys should not get Dalembert money (Dalembert shouldn't be getting Dalembert money). If they get it then great for them. I would not offer it though. I would honestly be content with waiting until 2009 to make a splash if the free agents in that year could end up helping us more than the guys that are available now. But how patient is your average Philly fan???

I think Josh Smith is the guy most people think of because he likely won't be signed by the Hawks with Horford and Marvin Williams at the forward spots there. but there are plenty of post guys who are young and likely won't get deals from their current teams.

Biedrins is another guy I'd add to that list. GS will have trouble signing Monta Ellis and Baron Davis to deals, let alone their 11th pick of 2004. He's averaging 10 boards in 27 minutes, 3 of which are offensive. And his offensive skills have an upside Reggie Evans would kill to see.

In no way am I saying he's a $10 million a year player. But there are players out there that can be developed in the post.

BB, Josh Smith would be the guy, possibly Emeka. Your values are way under what these guys will get and what some of them are worth. I'm trying to be realistic about this. You try to Joe Banner them and you will get nothing. I'm not saying overpay, but I am saying you have to be competitive.

Turiaf is a back up center/PF for the Lakers that has more offensive game than any of our post men. Your number for him might be what I would look to get him for.

I'd love to see Josh Smith in a Sixer uniform. Sorry BB, but he's worth more then 5-6 million. I see him in the 8-10 million range, realistically. I can even see some team giving him more.

Some people have suggested that Atlanta won't re-sign Smith. I can't imagine why not, but if this is true then Stefanski should go get him now. Take a page out of Holmgren's book. The Flyers went and traded for two of the top pending free agents and signed them before they could get to the open market. Essentially beating the rest of the league to the punch. Stefanski should beat the rest of the league and go get Smith now.

I agree Dean...Trading Kyle was a tremendous mistake. We got an first round talent in the second round of the draft. There are teams that spend lottery picks on players that are only there to catch and shoot. Look at J.J redick. Ed certainly out thought himself with that move. I dont even know what the purpose was besides just to say that he did something proactive even tho i'm looking at it like he did it to sabatoge the team for a better pick later. Yes Kyle isnt the best defender but there are only like a handful of good defenders in the nba anyway. Even the so called athletic players get skated on in the half court sets on the regular. I dont know the details of the first rounder. But it sounds like it has been protected granted that the Jazz fall out of playoff contention one year and thats highly unlikely. And the truth is...What are we really looking at in free agency...Pretty much nothing. All the sixers have is about ten million in space cap. And most of the players that are free agents have turned that down from the teams that they are already on. So what splash does he really think he is going to make? All of those teams can match the salary the sixers would be able to offer. Especially since the best players available are going to be restricted free agents anyway. What sense did it really make to give up such a good team guy who could definately give you a fundamental that most teams in the league do not have. For a pick somewhere in the 20's. Dumb move Ed.

Willie...I agree with you on your question because I find myself asking myself the same thing. The only positive that i can find in getting rid of Billy King is the fear of Larry Brown possibly influencing any more of his personel moves. Other than that...I have got to say that Billy King has done pretty well with the drafts since Larry brown left. He grabbed Kyle Korver in the second round. Drafted Louis williams in the second round. I'm pretty sure Sammy is one of his guys. Andre is a guy he drafted with the 9th or 10th pick and he is probably a top 3 guy in that 04 draft period. No i dont think he got everything he could have possibly gotten for Allen Iverson seeing that Ray allen was traded for the 5th pick in this year's draft. But I think that situation was out of his hands because of Distain the Comcast Chairman had for Iverson. And even with that said I dont think the sixers got completely raped in the deal. They just didnt get equal value. But who does? Especially when you are forced to trade an hall of famer. I mean I would have liked to see the sixers traded up and gotten horford or Yi and still manage to keep the twelveth pick in Young. I really dont know what King was thinking with all of those deals he did because we didnt get much back in return. Almost like we gave those latter picks away because his early intentions fell threw. But even with that said. We dont know what Herbert Hill is yet. I really like Jason Smith. And Thadeus seems to play an highly efficient game. There are times I thought King could have been more aggressive but you cant knock the nucleus of this team. It was built to run and play an very athletic brand of basketball. And had he gotten the chance to see another draft threw, I think we could have one of the deepest rosters as far as young talent in the league. Right now i'm just hoping that Ed doesnt draft Dalembert because i see him being a better player offensively and he's learning when to pick and choose his spots defensively. I dont believe bringing Ed in has improved the team's talent evaluation skills. I think it has just made the team more wary that Ed doesnt have any responsibility to any of King's picks...Coaching and Players alike. And to be honest, I like the idea of us growing our own players and not having to trade for some other team's spoiled goods and damaged psyches.

The Sixers have been in a decline for 5-6 years now? This wasn't a rebuilding project. 4 coaches in 3 years, One of the most expensive payrolls in the league and a star who was openly loathed by both the local media and management.

And how much does it cost for two people to go to the game? At those prices, you better be producing wins.