Sixers’ Young Core Gives Franchise Bright Future at BetLM

Sixers’ Young Core Gives Franchise Bright Future

PHILADELPHIA (NBA/Newsfeed) – Under new man­age­ment, the 76ers had Philadel­phia car­ing about bas­ket­ball again.

They had co-owner Will Smith sit­ting court­side and play­ing along to the cameras.

They brought Julius Erv­ing back in the fold. Allen Iver­son made a stir­ring return, too.

But the biggest buzz at last came from the Six­ers them­selves. No longer mired in medi­oc­rity, Jrue Hol­i­day, Evan Turner, Andre Iguo­dala, Lou Williams, Elton Brand and Co., car­ried the team from a 20–9 start into plucky post­sea­son over­achiev­ers. Led by coach Doug Collins, the Six­ers posted their first win­ning record (35–31) since 2004-05, and won a play­off series for the first time since 2003.

The Six­ers knocked off the top-seeded, and under­manned, Chicago Bulls in the open­ing round and stretched the Boston Celtics to Game 7 of the East­ern Con­fer­ence semi­fi­nals. One day after the deci­sive 10-point loss in Boston, the Six­ers con­soled them­selves know­ing that brighter days are finally ahead.

“It’s great to be an over­achiever,” Collins said Sun­day. “But to be a cham­pion, you can’t overachieve.”

Man­ag­ing owner Joshua Har­ris and CEO Adam Aron all had great returns in the first year of their invest­ment in the Philadel­phia 76ers.

Now comes the hard part – turn­ing them into a reg­u­lar 50-win team and cham­pi­onship contenders.

“This is the big leagues,” Har­ris said. “We’re going to do what we have to do to make the team bet­ter. What­ever it takes are pretty strong words, but we’re pre­pared to do what we have to do as own­er­ship, finan­cially or oth­er­wise, to improve the team. We want to win.”

To really win big, the Six­ers might have to over­haul the roster.

The Six­ers believe they are set in the back­court with Turner and Hol­i­day run­ning the show for years ahead.

The rest of the ros­ter remains in flux.

The poten­tial returns for vet­er­ans Iguo­dala and Brand are murkier. Iguo­dala has long been the sub­ject of trade spec­u­la­tion and the team could look to amnesty Brand.

Unlike last season’s final day, when an unhappy Iguo­dala no-showed his exit inter­view with man­age­ment, and refused to say he wanted to return to the 76ers, he was all smiles Sun­day and opti­mistic about the orga­ni­za­tions future.

Iguo­dala, one of the top defend­ers in the league, is a can­di­date this sum­mer for the men’s Olympic team. But a solid post­sea­son – high­lighted by the win­ning free throws in Game 6 to elim­i­nate the Bulls – and one more year, plus an option on his con­tract, make him valu­able trade bait.

“I always pre­pare to come back and be here,” Iguo­dala said.

Iguo­dala said the fact that the Six­ers have estab­lished them­selves as a threat in the East makes them more attrac­tive than in pre­vi­ous seasons.

“Last sum­mer, I saw what we could do,” Iguo­dala said.

He might have to see what they can do next sea­son with­out Brand.

Under the right set of cir­cum­stances, Har­ris said the Six­ers would use the amnesty clause, which allows a team to waive one player dur­ing the new labor deal and have 100 per­cent of his salary taken off the cap and the tax.

Brand is due $ 18 mil­lion in the final sea­son of his five-year con­tract. While Brand is the locker room leader and heart of the Six­ers, his pro­duc­tion never mer­ited the whop­ping deal he signed as one of the hottest free agents around. He aver­aged 11 points and 7.2 rebounds this season.

Brand under­stands the orga­ni­za­tion will do what’s best, but he does not want to leave.

“I want to be here, absolutely,” Brand said. “If it is (over), I def­i­nitely loved my time here.”

He played through painful neck and shoul­der injuries in the post­sea­son and will have an MRI on Monday.

Williams, who led Philadel­phia in scor­ing despite not start­ing a sin­gle game this sea­son, was sec­ond in the bal­lot­ing for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award. He can opt out of the final year of his con­tract that would pay him $ 6.4 million.

“If I was a bet­ting man, I think I would be back,” Williams said. “Obvi­ously, it comes down to a deal, but I don’t think that will be the hard part. This is home for me. I feel wanted here. I hope the feel­ing is mutual.”

Because of the late pur­chase date and the lock­out, the own­er­ship group has yet to make its mark on the player per­son­nel side. The Six­ers clearly need more size and pro­duc­tion in the front­court, another proven scorer or two, and a vet­eran point guard to men­tor Holiday.

The Six­ers hold the 15th over­all pick in the draft, and picks 45 and 54 in the sec­ond round.

The Six­ers hope those play­ers will be a big part of their future.

Collins intends to be coach­ing them. He has two years left on his con­tract and wants to see this process through.

“I sure feel bet­ter right now than I did two years ago stand­ing here won­der­ing where this all might head,” Collins said.

After a decade with lit­tle to root for, Collins has the Six­ers on the brink of break­ing through as ris­ing con­tenders in the East.

BetLM's sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more NBA news see: Six­ers’ young core gives fran­chise bright future.

Related Posts:

• Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers Honor Joe Mon­tana, Steve Young
• Alfie Unde­cided on Future, Will Talk to Family
• Den­ver Bron­cos Draft QB of Future in Brock Osweiler
• Young Arrested on Hate Assault Charge
• Parise, Brodeur Mum on Future

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•