Sixers Rumors: Brand No Longer Needed?

Found these tidbits this morning figured I toss it out there…

Sixers GM Ed Stefanski is desperate to unload forward Elton Brand(notes) and the $66 million owed over the remaining four years of his crippling contract, sources say, but that will be incredibly difficult. Even with several teams, including Golden State and Charlotte, desperate for low-post scorers and rebounders, no one believes Brand, who makes $14.8 million this season, has enough left to merit taking on that contract. ~ Yahoo Sports

Funny thing about the Brand rumor is we keep hearing it and Stefanski keeps denying it.  Who do you believe?

From a financial + basketball standpoint it makes sense.  Brand isn’t leading us to a championship.  At best he is a solid contributor to a playoff team whose hopes are maybe a first round series win and that’s even unlikely in my opinion.

On top of that you have a young PF in Speights who looks like he can be a 20-10 offensive player if given minutes and touches.  On top of that the upcoming draft is extremely power forward heavy.

Financially, roughly 52% of the Sixers salary is tied up between Brand, Iguodala and Lou.  Three guys who are locked up until 2013 and not leaders or elite players.  And Brand’s contract is the largest and escalates to over $18M in the final year when he will be turning 34 years old.

His contract is enormous and likely to look worse than Dalembert’s in another year or two if:

1. Eddie Jordan is still the coach and not using him for his defense and rebounding
2. He continues to get hurt on and off
3. His play takes a nose dive for good

That first point is key.

Trading Brand after he has started to show he can perform near his old level is smart if the move if it’s based purely on creating a more favorable cap situation.

But if it’s because you hired a dumb ass coach who only cares about offense, is infatuated with playing small line-ups and sees little value in Brand’s services then Stefanski would be as clueless as the guy he brought in to coach.

So other Sixers’ quotes from that piece:

Before Monta Ellis(notes) started on his scoring tear, Philly had hope that his issues with Golden State might inspire the Warriors to take a chance on Brand, but that isn’t happening.

Sacramento had some interest in center Samuel Dalembert(notes), another contract Philly wants to shed, but couldn’t work out a three-way deal with Boston.

I’d like to see the Sixers show they have some clue of how to build a winner.  Show some semblance of direction and purpose with their moves.

December 4, 2009