More of the same from 76ers this year?

By Anthony Mallamaci
Collegian Reporter
October 11, 2006

After a miserable season in 2005, the Philadelphia 76ers are looking to mix lots of veteran leadership with young, athletic talent to have a successful year. This strategy was not planned on, though, as general manager Billy King looked to make big deals in the off-season.

Rumors ran rampant this summer about deals involving both perennial All-Star guard Allen Iverson and the athletic, yet raw, and many times dumb, center Samuel Dalembert heading to Atlanta (as well as other teams) in exchange for high draft picks and/or expiring contracts.

No deals were made, and the Sixers are stuck with almost the same team as last year.

It was known that King wanted to wipe the slate clean this season, but unloading the contracts of Iverson, Chris Webber and Dalembert is not as easy as it sounds. He found takers for these players, but the sides couldn’t agree on what pieces would be moved from team to team.

By the time King gave up on trading them, any and all reasonably priced free agents were already signed to teams, so he tried to complement what he had on his roster with what was left on the market.

Also at this time, King went out and drafted an Andre Iguodala clone in the form of guard/forward Rodney Carney from Memphis and a defensive specialist in forward Bobby Jones from Washington.

In addition, King signed the old, unreliable and blandly average forward Alan Henderson. He is also taking a chance on undrafted rookie forward Steven Smith, from La Salle. Instead of signing a point guard with scoring potential to take some pressure off of Iverson, King went and signed another washed-up player in guard Rick Brunson.

Mo Cheeks is even taking chances in starting seasoned veteran point guard Kevin Ollie, so Iverson can make his move back to shooting guard.

This does not have the potential to last too long; Iverson will move back to the point, with Iguodala moving down to shooting guard, and Kyle Korver and Carney will fight for minutes at the small forward position.

With all of these changes, the roster now looks something like this: Dalembert at center, Webber at power forward, Iguodala at small forward, Iverson at shooting guard and Ollie at the point. Carney, Willie Green, Korver and Steven Hunter have spots on the bench.

These nine roster spots are almost set in stone. If any of these players was to get cut, it would be a surprise.

The final three spots are figured to be settled by how Shavlik Randolph, Alan Henderson, Bobby Jones, Ivan McFarlin, Smith, Louis Williams and Rick Brunson play in the preseason.

Whichever way this rotation shapes out, don’t expect much from these Sixers. They will probably make a playoff run, just as they did the year before. That was just the result of playing in the completely terrible Eastern Conference.

They will hover around .500 for most of the year, probably falling and finishing beneath that mark to end the season. But look at it this way: the worse this team is during the regular season, the better chance they have at a good draft pick. Big men Greg Oden, Joakim Noah, Josh McRoberts and Tyler Hansbrough will be entering the draft in 2007, so keep your fingers crossed.

mallamacia1@lasalle.edu