MVN - Most Valuable Network

Ed Stefanski is My Hero; Welcome to Philly, Elton

In a span of one day, the Sixers went from out of the race to winners of the Elton Brand sweepstakes. Brand has informed the Sixers that he will accept a 5-year deal worth about $82 million. This is the biggest splash this organization has made in a very long time and I’m sure season tickets are pouring in as we speak. In 7 short months, Mr. Stefanski has turned this team into a championship contender by simply trading 2 role players for money. You are a genius.

The starting lineup that will most likely be announced on opening night will be Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Elton Brand and Samuel Dalembert. That would give us a bench of Louis Williams, Willie Green, Jason Smith, Speights and Reggie Evans. There will be a lot of role changes hopefully starting with Reggie Evans only seeing spot minutes and making Willie Green the sixth man. It looks like rookie Marreese Speights won’t get a chance to play as much as expected but I hope he watches and learns from Elton. That all-star bench could also be adding a couple of more players before the summer is through.

Philly could have up to 3 players represented at the All-star game depending on how the team responds to this move. The PF position is not strong at all in the East and EB’s 20-10 should be enough to get him to the game. Andre Iguodala should benefit greatly from playing with another all-star but if the team is winning he could find his way on the squad.

The guy who is probably most excited is Sammy D. His numbers should skyrocket because of his new frontcourt mate attracting double-teams. On defense, he doesn’t have to help as often since Brand is such a good defender. This should be one of the top defenses in the league as well with one of the best benches. This team is going to give people fits and is built for the postseason.

If you don’t know the story yet, Elton Brand had a “handshake agreement” with the Clippers, saying he would opt-out of his current deal in order for the team to sign a big-name free-agent and then they could sign him back at a lower price. I’m sure he planned on going through with this until he saw teams throwing 20-30 million more than what he was going to get. I guess EB did have his priorities straight because as soon as the Eastern Conference team made a move to become a player in the sweepstakes he knew it was his time to bounce and compete for a ring.

The Rodney Carney to Minnesota trade has to go down first and then Elton can sign. Nothing is official yet and verbal agreements obviously don’t mean much to him but this deal is virtually done. The Warriors ended up signing Corey Maggette with all their cap space but still have more to spend. The Clippers are stranded with Baron Davis, the player that Elton asked for, and will probably make a serious run at Josh Smith now.

If this team can win 50+ games and get to the 2nd or conference championship then Stefanski is the GM of the year, no question. Finally, the team has the talent. Now let’s see if coach Cheeks can make this talented team into a winner and earn his big-time contract extension. I can’t wait until we go to the Staples Center to play the Clippers this season. Opening night can’t come soon enough.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Depressed Fan, Willie Green, Louis Williams, Andre Iguodala, Reggie Evans, Sixers, Staples Center, Marreese Speights, Ed Stefanski, Rodney Carney, Andre Miller, Samuel Dalembert, Eastern Conference, Golden State Warriors, Jason Smith, L.A Clippers, Corey Maggette, Thaddeus Young, Baron Davis, Minnesota Timberwolves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.