NBA Ticket to the Playoffs

AP Photo/Tom Mihalek

The LA Clippers internal plans for an Elton Brand / Baron Davis combo have been dashed. Brand has spurned the Clippers after talks "fell through", and he began to look at other offers from Golden State and Philadelphia. The 76ers initially did not have the room to sign Brand, but after a contract dump trade to Minnesota (Calvin Booth and Rodney Carney) the 76ers had room to offer Brand a near 80 million dollar deal.

Brand leaves what seemed to be a rejuvenated Clipper squad with the addition of a real PG in Baron Davis. Now he leaves the Clippers with a lot of question marks and a lot of cap space to spend on someone else. They just lost Corey Maggette a few days ago to Golden State, so maybe the Clips will wait to use their cap space later or throw some money at restricted free agents like Andre Iguodala or Emeka Okafor?

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, the addition of Brand moves this team to a top 5 team in the East with the potential to compete for the conference title in a few years. Whereas in the unforgiving Western Conference, the Clippers would have been lucky to make the playoffs with Brand. Remember, the 76ers had the Pistons down 2-1, including winning the 1st game of the series in Detroit. The series then was dominated by Detroit because of Philly's lack of a threat in the half court game (notably Andre Iguodala's 33% from the floor with 2 / 14 from three point land). Adding Brand solves the post scoring woes and along with Dalembert, the two should provide a solid defense at the basket.

The one thing the 76ers are really lacking is an outside shooter. Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller are not proficient in three point shooting. Kyle Korver was traded in the middle of last season to create some cap room, and they could really use him now. Quality shooters like Ben Gordon are on the market but he exceeds the dollar amount that the 76ers can go over with a maxed out Brand signed.

One idea is to let Andre Iguodala walk. Sure he is young and athletic, but he is demanding superstar, max contract type money after performing poorly as the top offensive option in the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs against Detroit. Ultimately Iguodala is better as a 2nd option with someone setting him up for athletic plays at the hoop. Teams do not respect his jump shot and he does not shoot 3's. So why not let him walk to see if you might find a more complete superstar next summer or in the talent rich 2010 summer. If they were to commit to Iguodala they might regret not having that flexibility when Wade, Lebron, Bosh, Melo, etc are available.

As currently constructed, the boost with Brand should push the 76ers back into the top half of the Eastern Conference. They are finally on the upswing after the mediocrity that followed their 2001 NBA Finals run, and the Allen Iverson trade helped open up the room for all of this to happen.