Today is the long-awaited day for Sixers fans. It's been seven long years since this team was a contender. And, it's been five years of cap hell for this team. Dikembe Mutombo's contract (around $15 million annually) with 3 years left was exchanged for Keith Van Horn's salary. And, then Van Horn was traded for Glenn Robinson. And, Glenn Robinson was traded (in what might be the worst trade in Sixers history) for Rodney Rodgers and Jamal Mashburn's supposedly expiring contract-if he chose to retire, which he didn't. Therefore, they were on the books for two more years after Mashburn exercised his option even though he couldn't play anymore!
And, this was just one element to it. The Sixers were buried due to bad contracts handed to Aaron McKie, Kenny Thomas and Brian Skinner (who were later traded to Sacramento in the Webber deal) and Todd McCullough who retired, but continued collecting a salary.
Gotta love the NBA. The league were bottom feeders are paid to sit on their asses and retired players keep teams in salary cap hell.
But, the Sixers are finally out from underneath this mess and have 11 million big ones to spend. So, who will they spend it on?
Word out of Atlanta is they will make a huge push for forward Josh Smith starting today. The Sixers may front-load their contract offer to him, which will prohibit the Hawks from being able to sign him. Smith is due to be in Philly later on this week.
He is said to be one of the top free agents on the market and NBA people say he has the skills to be a top notch power forward in this league-just what the Sixers need to become a contender again. Charles Barkley disagrees though. When he was on Sports Final on Sunday night with John Clarke and Anthony Gargano he thinks the Sixers would be wasting their money on Smith and he would do little to make them a contender.
Another player they may go after is Elton Brand, who just opted out of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent.
Clearly the Sixers have to do something to start winning the fans back in this town. During the latter part of the Iverson years they were a habitually average team and before opening night last year it had to be the quietest introduction to a season for any team in this town in quite some time. But, in two years there will be some huge names available on the open market, when Chris Bosh, Dywane Wade, and Lebron James all become free agents.
But, they can't wait until then to spend their money. Five years of mediocre basketball is long enough.
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