NBA Trade Deadline: Philidelphia Sixers Made Right Move by Making No Big Move

Right now, if the fine folks down at WIP610 even remotely cared about the Sixers, I can only imagine the topic of conversation on the radio waves: Why didn't the Sixers make a huge move at the trade deadline?!

Instead, they're probably talking 24/7 about the Phillies pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training, or predicting the exact day that Donovan McNabb will be traded away from the Eagles.

Sigh. Such is the state of apathy for Philadelphia professional basketball in 2010.

It's hard to get pumped up for a 20-33 team, especially one that just got blown out by 27 points at the hands of the Miami Heat on Tuesday.  

The Sixers had started generating momentum before the All-Star break, managed to reel off a five-game winning streak (by far their longest of the season) before they dropped the last game before the break...and then they came back to the court Tuesday with a poop sandwich.

Meanwhile, guys like Marcus Camby, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, Kevin Martin, and Tracy McGrady were being shopped and swapped in an incredible series of trades leading up to Thursday's trade deadline.

Well, the Sixers did find a way to get involved on Thursday : They traded two players who rarely play (Primoz Brezec and Royal Ivey) and their second-round pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for rookie Jodie Meeks and seven-footer Francisco Elson.

Cue Sixers fans slamming their heads in disgust in unison.

Sixers fans had been clamoring to trade Andre Iguodala, Sammy Dalembert, Elton Brand, or anyone with a huge contract in the weeks leading up to the deadline.  The Sixers respond by effectively swapping a second-round pick for a rookie.  

Check out the first comment on this Inquirer column about the trade for Meeks to get an idea of the vitriol Sixers fans feel towards the management these days.  

An excerpt: "You have no shot with this squad. Ed, we know you're not Midas, you can't take a turd and turn it into gold over night, but you could have given the fans of this franchise some hope going forward. Now our only hope is they lose despite their effort, and you get fired, and we get someone who actually gets how this works."  

Welcome to being a Philadelphia fan.

Even fans who didn't want the Sixers to trade Iggy or Sammy, like depressedfan , weren't exactly inspired by the Sixers' moves for the future.  

(Full disclosure: I was very much in this camp, thinking the Sixers shouldn't pawn Iggy for cap relief , and I'm already thinking towards next season as well.)

But there are two main reasons that the Sixers' decision to not move any of their huge contracts this seasons will actually end up being a wise choice in the long run: next season's contract situation and the talent on the team.

I'll tackle these in reverse order.  As the Sixers proved last night against the San Antonio Spurs, they do have talent on this roster.

They beat the Celtics earlier this season, they knocked off Denver on the road , and they squashed the Spurs in the fourth quarter last night, outscoring them 33-18 "in the winning quarter," as Lou Williams apparently calls it (the Sixers won by 12 ).

In fact, they have too much talent, and talent that mostly overlaps (a bunch of swingmen and power forwards, a shortage of true point guards and centers).  

With the win against the Spurs, the Sixers are 21-33, six-and-a-half games out of the eighth seed in the East (currently held by Charlotte). Allen Iverson and Eddie Jordan are still talking playoffs , though.

"Anything can happen," Jordan said. "Is 21-8 realistic? We have to really catch fire and carry momentum through. I'm not going to count anything out."

The reality is that the Sixers should turn their focus to the long-term, and consider the rest of this season an evaluation process.

They're not going 20-8 the rest of the way. They play the seventh place Bulls, who are 28-26 tonight. They face a slew of playoff contenders down the stretch.

And even if they somehow, by some struck of pure dumb luck, make the playoffs, they'll be promptly pounded in the first round, will have cost themselves a shot at the draft lottery, and will have fans wondering why the Sixers seem to be stuck in "Groundhog Day."

With that said, they have two things going for them the rest of the way. First, they've got a coach whose been drunk on wacky lineup switches all season. And second, they've got 10 or 11 players on their roster who could contribute valuable minutes in the right situation.

They should use the rest of the season to take advantage of Jordan's pure lunacy, having him switch up lineups to evaluate which players work best with each other. Does Thaddeus Young have a special chemistry with Elton Brand? We know Allen Iverson gets Sammy Dalembert's game going. Who else works symbiotically together on the court?  

Seeing as they've got nearly 30 games to figure that out, they've got a head start on being able to start setting consistent minutes and rotations for players next season.

But why shouldn't they have shipped out Iggy and Sammy for T-Mac and Chase Budinger, to free up a boatload of cap space for the upcoming free agent class?

Well, honestly, do you see LeBron, D-Wade, or Chris Bosh coming to Philadelphia? (The answer is "no.")

Where does that leave you? In the "Who-gets-to-overpay-Carlos-Boozer-or-Rudy-Gay Sweepstakes?" The Sixers already have Elton Brand on the books for the next three years at a total cost of $50 million. They don't need any more contract albatrosses, especially with a new collective bargaining agreement (hopefully?) coming in 2011.

Meanwhile, Samuel Dalembert's $12 million, Jason Kapono's $6.5 million, and Willie Green's $4 million contracts all expire after next season . That's $22.5 million, also known as the price of Tracy McGrady, right out the door without the Sixers making a single move between now and then.

But with the three contracts broken up instead of one gigantic un-tradable mass like McGrady's, they all will have the most trade value they'll ever have in January and February in 2011.

With the prospect of a lockout looming after next season, the Sixers will have $20-plus million of accessible cap relief in a time when teams could be panicking, not knowing what to expect from the next CBA.

There's been discussion of a hard salary cap, which would prevent teams like the Lakers and Cavaliers paying their rosters $20-30 million more than some small-market teams.

Ideally, Elton Brand will have only found more comfort in the Sixers' offense by the trade deadline next season, Andre Iguodala will most likely remain his versatile-if-not-deadly self, and both will have one year less on their contracts, making them all the more tradable.

They'll never be able to land a superstar for Iguodala, and rightfully so. But if teams can coordinate shipping out a player who never plays for an every-day starter for years to come (Hi, Tracy McGrady for Kevin Martin), there are deals to be made in a certainly uncertain economic market.

But unlike this year, where they would have likely been forced to sell Iggy and Sammy for cap relief (yes, I'm talking to you, Amar'e), they've got a better chance next year to pawn their pieces for legitimate prizes in return.

I know the future this season is likely bleak. But I'm not giving up hope until next season's trade deadline.

I've got faith that someone in this organization realizes that they've got $22.5 million coming off the books before 2011-12, and they've got a two-or-three year plan centered around that fact and that fact alone.

But if the Sixers lay an egg in next year's trade deadline? Abandon ship. There's no saving this team until Brand and Iggy come off the books.