Five Storylines for the 2009-2010 Philadelphia 76ers

(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

In this NBA offseason, the rich got richer (Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs, Ron Artest to the Los Angeles Lakers, Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels to the Boston Celtics, Shaquille O'Neal to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Vince Carter to the Orlando Magic), while the poor got poorer (in an attempt to shave cap space while hopefully not getting fleeced like Memphis GM Chris Wallace).

The Philadelphia 76ers stayed somewhere in between, content with what they had.

Philly made no major acquisitions, despite the flurry of activity from the preseason title favorites, only choosing to low-ball starting PG Andre Miller out of town and into Portland.

The Sixers are still waiting for the payoff of their biggest offseason gamble in recent history—namely, a five-year, $80 million contract to former No. 1 pick Elton Brand in 2008.

Brand's first season in Philadelphia was marred by injuries, limiting him to playing in a total of 29 games. He had been recovering from rupturing his left Achilles' tendon with the Clippers the season before. Brand dislocated his shoulder in late December and never rounded back into his typical 20/10 form.

When healthy, Brand is one of the only four active NBA players with a career average of 20 points and 10 rebounds (the others being Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and O'Neal).

Injuries, however, have limited Brand to 37 games in the past two seasons (out of a possible 164 games), which leaves Sixers fans to wonder whether they'll ever get the 20/10 post option they thought they'd signed from the Clippers.

Brand's redemption is one of the five biggest storylines to keep an eye on for the Sixers in this upcoming season. Let's check out the others:

1) New Head Coach Eddie Jordan

After losing in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual-Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic, 76ers interim head coach Tony DiLeo returned to his position in the Sixers' front office (as assistant GM), leaving a massive vacancy at the head coaching spot.

The Sixers front office didn't wait long, signing former Washington Wizards coach Eddie Jordan to a multi-year deal for their head coaching spot.

Jordan thrived with the Wizards running a version of the Princeton offense, which he has now brought to Philadelphia. The Princeton offense is one of the most complicated offensive systems run in the NBA, as all five players on the court must be viable options to pass the ball to the open man, get an open shot, and knock down said open shot.

So far...not so good for the Sixers. In the preseason, the players have seemed confused by the offense and have often bailed on running set plays within the last five seconds of the shot clock.

"It's a learning process," PG Lou Williams said. "It's not something you can just pick up. It's going to take time to process and to run it and to run it efficiently."

Brand explained the complications of the offense in this way:

"You have to know that guys are out of position and that they're not going to cut all the way through and things like that on the first day. But it makes a lot of sense. Because I'm cutting and this guy's cutting because this guy has an open shot out at the elbow. Or I'm pulling through so Lou Williams can do what he does great and penetrate.

"We have to deprogram ourselves. I'm going to stop at the block sometimes, and you've got to go through. The guards sometimes want to hold the ball, but they've got to kick it ahead to Andre Iguodala and guys like that. We're not used to cutting through and moving the ball the way we are."

While the Sixers have remained disjointed offensively in the preseason, they did manage to run to a 5-3 record...meaning that if the offense stalls, the Sixers appear to have the necessary horses that can break out and run.

2) Skip-to-my-Lou?

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