Sixers Want A Big Man In The NBA Draft; An Intro to Off-Season Posts

I mean, we all know what the team needs. But, it’s comforting that they know they need a big man that can score and defend. Here’s the story.

Some thoughts: I actually am confident in the decisions made by the team on draft night. The years since Andre Iguodala was drafted, the Sixers have picked some nice players. Of course, do these players end up signing with the team?

You knew Thabo Sefolosha was drafted by the Sixers in 2006, right? Well he was. And we traded him off for Rodney Carney. Thabo is now a key role player on the championship contending Oklahoma City Thunder while Carney is…somewhere over the rainbow or something. In keeping with the Thunder, Deaquan Cook was another player drafted by the Sixers. They traded him for Jason Smith. Cook hasn’t turned out that great of a player and I’m okay with the trade overall.

Last year’s draft received a lot of not-so-good grades. I keep saying it but I don’t like to label players until I’ve seen them in the NBA. Otherwise, we don’t really know. Obviously, there are busts in the league and non-drafted stars too. You just don’t know until it happens. College ball does give a solid indication of how a player’s game will translate to the NBA game though.

So now here we are. Sixers say they’re looking at big men who can score and/or defend. That’s what I, and many other writers, said they should target this off-season. Does this mean that Sixers aren’t looking to trade or sign a big man? Is it possible the Sixers will use their 15th pick in a trade if they don’t find their big man in the draft? The Andre Iguodala trade rumors are only going to heat up more as draft day approaches.

If you trade Iguodala, it’s gotta be for at least a young big guy that has star potential and a pick or two. Anything else is really not going to work for a team loaded with young talent and really should completely commit to rebuilding. That’s right, the Sixers are like semi-rebuilding.

At this point, I’m convinced the Sixers will amnesty Elton Brand. What do you need him for? He was the 10th highest paid player this past season? Yeah TENTH. I like Brand but that contract has to go. I’ll have a post just for him coming up in the nest few days.

Another type of player the Sixers are looking for is a scorer. Now, if you draft a scorer, you can trade Iguodala for the big man or vice versa. But I don’t think Sixers will be able to draft both needs. A big man who can score is the most ideal in this draft. Saying bye to Elton Brand gives some room to make a move in free agency, although I would probably save the cash for next off-season.

Now, as you may have read in the title, this is an intro to my several off-season posts. During the Sixers’ late season collapse, I checked out of the season mentally and did scouting of players. Anyway, I wrote many posts of things to look forward to in the off-season and stuff like that. They’ve been collecting dust at my blog National Sixers but, now that I’m editor here, I figure I bring the drafts over here. I have many thoughts that would be too long for one single post. That’s why some of the paragraphs in this post seem like incomplete thoughts. I just had to stop myself from going in too deep into the subject at hand. The posts are almost rant-like too since, while I was writing them, I was pissed at the Sixers. So I’ll have to edit some stuff out but my mind has not been changed about this team: they suck (Don’t worry; I’ll explain what I mean).

So there it is. Sixers know what they need. We just have to hope they find the right guy; whether it’s through the draft, trade, or free agency.