Ratliff signs with Sixers seven years removed from NBA Finals .
August 21, 2008
Theo Ratliff returned to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday, more than seven years after he was traded from the team during its run to the NBA Finals.
Ratliff, 35, played 26 games for Minnesota and Detroit and appeared in 12 of the Pistons’ 17 playoff games.
Terms of Ratliff’s deal with the Sixers weren’t disclosed.
“We’re very fortunate to sign a player of Theo’s caliber,” general manager Ed Stefanski said. “He is a consummate professional, both on the court and off, who will provide us with additional depth in the frontcourt while also serving as a mentor to some of our younger players.”
Ratliff has played for six teams during his 13 NBA seasons, including parts of four years with the Sixers from 1997-2001. In 705 career games, Ratliff has averaged 7.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks in 27 minutes.
Ratliff helped the Sixers to the best record in the Eastern Conference during the 2000-01 season, but was sent to Atlanta before the trade deadline in a multiplayer deal that brought Dikembe Mutombo to Philadelphia. Ratliff was an All-Star that season, but broke his wrist in early February, precipitating the trade.
Ratliff is one of seven players in NBA history to lead the league in blocks in at least three seasons (2000-01, 2002-03 and 2003-04). He ranks 18th in total blocks (1,855) and is seventh among active players.
The Sixers have been busy this summer after reaching the playoffs for the first time in three years. They signed two-time All-Star forward Elton Brand, added free-agent guards Royal Ivey and Kareem Rush last week and re-signed two of their most important players to long-term contracts, guard Louis Williams and forward andre Iguodala.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers resign Andre Iguodala for six years and $80 million.
August 17, 2008
The Philadelphia 76ers re-signed Andre Iguodala on Sunday, giving the forward a six-year contract worth a reported $80 million.
Iguodala, who was a restricted free agent, helped the 76ers reach the playoffs for the first time in three years. An official announcement is expected Monday.
Iguodala averaged 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.1 steals in 82 games last season. He struggled in the playoffs against Detroit, averaging 13.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 5.0 assists.
The 24-year-old Iguodala could’ve played this season under terms of a $3.8 million, one-year qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next year.
Retaining Iguodala was a top priority for Philadelphia, which lured two-time All-Star forward Elton Brand away from the Los Angeles Clippers earlier this summer.
Selected with the ninth overall pick in the first round of the 2004 NBA draft, Iguodala has averaged 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists in his career. He’s also been durable, missing just six games in four years.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers sign free agent guard Kareem Rush.
July 30, 2008
The Philadelphia 76ers signed free agent guard Kareem Rush on Tuesday to help bolster the team’s 3-point shooting.
Terms of the deal were not released.
The 6-foot-6, 215-pound Rush has averaged 6.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 314 games in five NBA seasons.
Last season with the Indiana Pacers, he averaged 8.3 points, a career-best 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 21.2 minutes per game and shot 39 percent from 3-point range.
“As we continue to build our team, we’re fortunate that we were able to sign a player as talented as Kareem Rush,” 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski said in a statement. “We feel his abilities on both ends of the floor and his range as a 3-point shooter will be assets to us this season.”
Rush was the 20th overall pick in the 2002 draft by Toronto before his rights were traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. He also played for the Charlotte Bobcats.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Philadelphia signs first-round pick Speights to first deal.
July 19, 2008
Marreese Speights, taken by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 16th overall pick in June’s NBA Draft, signed with the team on Friday.
Speights, a 6-foot-10 forward out of Florida, will earn about $2.6 million in the first two years of the contract. The team holds an option for two additional years.
Speights received considerable playing time in the Las Vegas summer league, averaging 18.2 points and team-highs with 10.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in five games.
Speights declared for the draft following his sophomore year at Florida, during which he averaged 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds for the Gators. He was a reserve on Florida’s 2007 NCAA championship team.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Elton Brand heads to Sixers in deal worth $82 million.
July 9, 2008
Elton Brand has signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, who have worked quickly to become a threat in the Eastern Conference.
The power forward instantly gives the Sixers the low-post presence they sorely needed. Over his career, Brand has averaged 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds.
Brand last week opted out of his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. He agreed to a five-year deal with Philadelphia worth a reported $82 million.
The 76ers were able to sign Brand to a big deal because they sent forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves as part of a trade that cleared an additional $2 million in salary cap space.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers agree to trade Carney, future No. 1 pick to T-Wolves.
July 9, 2008
The 76ers have agreed to trade forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves, two people in the NBA told the Associated Press on Tuesday, in a deal that clears salary cap space for Philadelphia to make a stronger play for free agent Elton Brand.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been completed and the NBA trade moratorium is not lifted until Wednesday.
The 76ers will throw in reserve forward Calvin Booth, and acquired a future second round draft pick and Minnesota’s $2.8 million trade exception gained in a 2007 deal with Miami.
“The only thing I can share with you is that Calvin’s contract will be traded to Minnesota tomorrow,” said Booth’s agent, Mark Termini.
The deal clears the way for the Sixers to potentially offer a nearly $14 million starting salary and a long-term deal to a free agent such as Brand — and he may be on the way.
The Los Angeles Times reported, citing an unidentified NBA source, on its website that Brand reached a verbal agreement to sign a multiyear contract with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The emerging Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player they badly need to become contenders in the Eastern Conference.
A proposed trade between the teams was first reported by Yahoo.com.
The Sixers had Atlanta forward Josh Smith in town for a visit last week but did not give the restricted free agent an offer sheet. As he’s a restricted free agent, the Hawks can match any offer made to the 6-foot-9, 235-pound Smith.
“There are still a couple of other teams in the mix,” said Wallace Prather, Smith’s agent. “Philly just seemed to be the most serious at the time. There are more options out there. I guess Philly wanted to do different things on the court. No hard feelings or anything.”
Brand’s arrival would be a huge move for the Sixers, who have worked quickly to become contenders in the Eastern Conference. Brand is the type of low post player Philadelphia desperately needed, averaging 20.3 points and 10.2 rebounds in nine seasons. Brand played in only eight games last season because of an Achilles’ tendon injury.
Brand opted out last week of his contract with the Clippers and had said he planned to stay with the Clippers despite his decision
Brand could make the Sixers instant contenders in the Eastern Conference. They were one of the surprise teams in the league last season, going 40-42 and stretching Detroit to six games in the first round of the playoffs. One thing they lacked was an athletic, consistent scorer at power forward.
76ers spokesman Mike Preston had no comment on Brand.
The trade allows the rebuilding Timberwolves, who have long been one of the worst cap managers in the league, to continue putting themselves in a position to be a major player on the free agent markets in 2009 and 2010.
Carney has one year remaining on his contract with a team option for 2009-10, while Booth will come off the books at the end of the upcoming season, unless a buyout agreement is reached before that.
The Timberwolves received the trade exception from the Heat because they took on less cash than they gave up in a deal last October that sent Mark Blount and Ricky Davis to Miami in exchange for Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien. That deal allowed them to rid themselves of Blount’s bloated contract.
On draft night in June, the Timberwolves were able to unload Marko Jaric’s hefty deal, shipping him to Memphis with O.J. Mayo, Walker and Greg Buckner for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal. All three of the Grizzlies in that deal have contracts that will expire no later than 2010.
That freedom will allow the team to pursue a big-name free agent or two to supplement a rising young core group of Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer and Rashad McCants.
As a secondary prize on the court in the Philly deal, Carney will give them an athletic swingman who averaged 5.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in his second season out of Memphis. Booth, if he stays, will give the team a little more depth at center behind Jefferson and Collins.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers working on deal with Timberwolves to free up cap space.
July 8, 2008
The 76ers are close to trading forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a deal that clears salary cap space for Philadelphia to make a stronger push for free agents, a person in the NBA told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been completed and the NBA trade moratorium is not lifted until Wednesday.
The 76ers will throw in reserve forward Calvin Booth, but are working out the particulars of what they will get back from Minnesota.
A proposed trade between the teams was first reported by Yahoo.com.
The deal clears the way for the Sixers to potentially offer a nearly $14 million starting salary and a long-term deal to free agents like forwards Elton Brand or Josh Smith. The emerging Sixers now have another $2 million in salary cap space to add to the $11 million in space available that they hope will land them the post player they badly need to become contenders in the Eastern Conference.
The Sixers had Smith in town for a visit last week but did not give the restricted free agent an offer sheet. As he’s a restricted free agent, the Hawks can match any offer made to the 6-foot-9, 235-pound Smith.
Brand would clearly be the Sixers’ best option. Brand opted out last week of his contract with the Clippers, but Los Angeles is expected to make a strong push to re-sign him. Brand had said he plans to stay with the Clippers despite his decision, even if he must accept a contract below the NBA maximum for free agents.
Smith or Brand could make the Sixers instant contenders in the Eastern Conference. They were one of the surprise teams in the league last season, going 40-42 and stretching Detroit to six games in the first round of the playoffs. One thing they lacked was an athletic, consistent scorer at power forward.
Smith would be a good fit for the up-tempo Sixers and would be a huge upgrade over last year’s power forward, Reggie Evans. Smith is one of the premier shot blockers in the league and could team with starting center Samuel Dalembert and small forward Thaddeus Young to form one of the top frontcourts in the Eastern Conference.
The deal allows the rebuilding Timberwolves, who have long been one of the worst cap managers in the league, to continue putting themselves in a position to be major players on the free-agent markets in 2009 and 2010.
Carney has one year remaining on his contract with a team option for 2009-10, while Booth will come off the books at the end of the upcoming season, unless a buyout agreement is reached before that.
The work started last season, when Minnesota traded Mark Blount and Ricky Davis to Miami for Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien, allowing them to rid themselves of Blount’s bloated contract.
On draft night in June, the Timberwolves were able to unload the Marko Jaric’s hefty deal, shipping him to Memphis with O.J. Mayo, Walker and Greg Buckner for Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal. All three of the ex-Grizzlies in that deal have contracts that will expire no later than 2010.
That freedom will allow the team to pursue a big-name free agent or two to supplement a rising young core group of Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer and Rashad McCants.
As a secondary prize on the court in the Philly deal, Carney will give them an athletic swingman who averaged 5.8 points and 2.1 rebounds in his second season out of Memphis. Booth, if he stays, will give the team a little more depth at center behind Jefferson and Collins.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers trying to lure Josh Smith away from the Hawks.
July 3, 2008
Josh Smith wasted no time taking advantage of his restricted free-agent status, spending Wednesday visiting the Philadelphia 76ers — a franchise with plenty of cap room to make a big offer.
The 22-year-old Smith toured the city and visited the Wachovia Center with Sixers officials, who would like to woo the forward away from Atlanta with an offer sheet too expensive for the Hawks to match. As he’s a restricted free agent, the Hawks can match any offer made to the 6-foot-9, 235-pound Smith.
But one of Smith’s agents said Wednesday night the former slam dunk champion was impressed with his tour of the city, which included a meeting with Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter.
“They showed a very genuine interest,” said Smith’s agent, Wallace Prowther. “Early, early next week we’ll have a much firmer grip on which direction things are going in.”
The Sixers can try and make a match offer sheet tough to accomplish.
The Sixers have about $11 million in salary cap space available and could use all of it to offer Smith a five-year contract. The Hawks have said they would match any contract offer to Smith, but are on the hook next season for big contracts for Mie Bibby and Joe Johnson, and they still want to re-sign forward Josh Childress.
Hawks co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. said shortly after the season he was committed to keeping Smith and Childress.
“We’re absolutely, without a doubt, very committed to keeping both as Hawks players for the long haul,” he said. “We believe in them and think they’re a critical part of this team and that they’re going to be part of this franchise for a long time.”
Smith’s numbers have increased in each of his four NBA seasons since Atlanta made him a first-round pick out of high school in 2004. He averaged 17.2 points and 8.2 rebounds last year and helped the Hawks make the playoffs.
Smith and his agents met with the Hawks on Tuesday. Prowther said other visits where scheduled, but declined to name the teams.
“The process is early, but I will say that things went very well,” he said.
Smith would be a nice fit for the up-tempo Sixers and would be a huge upgrade over last year’s power forward, Reggie Evans. He’s one of the premier shot blockers in the league and could team with starting center Samuel Dalembert and small forward Thaddeus Young to form one of the top frontcourts in the Eastern Conference.
“From the outside looking in, it looks like he’d fit well,” Prowther said.
Teams began negotiating with free agents on Tuesday and can begin signing free agents on July 9.
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Pistons rout Sixers in Philadelphia to win series 4-2.
May 2, 2008
The Philadelphia 76ers got the Detroit Pistons’ attention. Then they got steamrolled.
The Pistons powered into the second round of the playoffs by crushing Philadelphia 100-77 on Thursday night, winning the series 4-2 and again demonstrating how good they are when they feel they need to be.
Detroit convincingly won the last two games of a series that wasn’t expected to last this long. The Pistons will host the Orlando Magic, who eliminated Toronto in five games, on Saturday in the opener of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The teams split four meetings this season.
“Philadelphia probably woke us up,” Detroit coach Flip Saunders said. “Over the last 10 quarters we’ve executed as well as we can.”
Richard Hamilton hit his first five shots during Detroit’s overpowering start and finished with 24 points, 13 in the decisive first quarter when he outscored the 76ers by himself. Chauncey Billups added 20 points and Tayshaun Prince had 12 for the Pistons, who reached the second round for the seventh consecutive season.
They were all on the bench for nearly the entire fourth quarter, when the lead ballooned over 30 points. Detroit held Philadelphia without a field goal for nearly the first six minutes of the game, ending any real hopes the Sixers had of forcing a Game 7 back in Michigan.
Andre Iguodala scored 16 points and Andre Miller had another quiet game with 11 for the Sixers, who outplayed the heavily favored Pistons for the first 3½ games of the series but never really had a chance after that.
“It’s difficult because it’s our home court and we wanted to play well,” Miller said. “We were maybe a half away from going up 3-1. We kind of fell apart after that.”
The second-seeded Pistons won 59 games during the regular season, second-best in the NBA behind Boston. But they quickly found themselves trailing the upstart 76ers, who were just 40-42, 2-1 then fell behind by 10 points at halftime of Game 4.
Detroit rallied to win that game, then trailed for only 23 seconds over the final two mismatches. As easy as the Pistons’ 98-81 victory in Game 5 was, they had even less trouble in this one, racing to a 10-0 lead and never giving the disappointing crowd of 14,130 a chance to get into the game.
Detroit shot 58 percent from the field and limited Philadelphia to 34 percent.
“We really didn’t catch a rhythm in this series until that second half of Game 4, and we really got our defense going, our offense going and things like that,” Hamilton said. “And we kept carrying it over, so hopefully we can continue to do that.”
Players took the court to music and a clip from Rocky III in which Apollo Creed tells Philadelphia’s favorite movie hero that, “There is no tomorrow!”
It took just minutes to realize that for the Sixers, there wouldn’t be.
The score was quickly Hamilton 7, Philadelphia 0, with the Sixers’ sloppy start including an errant pass from Iguodala that struck Samuel Dalembert right upside his recently mohawked head for a turnover, followed a minute later by Thaddeus Young throwing up a 25-footer from 23 feet.
By the time Miller made Philadelphia’s first field goal with 6:13 left in the period, that only cut Detroit’s lead to 16-5. The Pistons shot 69 percent in the quarter, opening a 30-12 lead.
“We came prepared, we came ready, but they were on such another level,” Dalembert said.
A Philadelphia flurry early in the second cut it to 12, but the Pistons regained control when their starters returned and were ahead 51-33 when Billups hit a jumper at the halftime buzzer.
Fans booed as the Sixers walked off the court trailing 79-51 after three, but this should go down as a good season for a team that was widely expected to finish at the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Philadelphia was 18-30 in early February but closed with 22 wins in its last 34 games, then rallied from 15 points down in Game 1 to stun the Pistons at Detroit.
The few fans that were left gave the Sixers a standing ovation in the final minute and again after the game.
“No way did I anticipate a night like this,” Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks said. “I didn’t think they’d continue to make shots, but they did. We just never got a run, their defense was suffocating.”
Hookscenter.com wire report.
Sixers face elimination in Game 6 of Eastern quarterfinals.
May 1, 2008
Maurice Cheeks expects to hear the heckles one last time.
Cheeks wants to be the one who gets the last laugh with a Game 7 victory and silence those Pistons fans who needled him the last three games in Detroit. The 76ers coach told the hecklers, “I’ll be back” as the final seconds ticked off the clock in a Game 5 loss, putting Detroit up 3-2 in the first-round playoff series.
“What’d you want me to say? See you next year?” Cheeks said on Wednesday.
It will be next season if the Sixers can’t win Game 6 on Thursday in Philadelphia.
“I’ve believed in my players the whole season long and I’m not going to not believe in them now,” Cheeks said. “We’ve done it before and we’ve been able to come back.”
Only now, the Sixers don’t have half a season to rally and start playing better basketball. They’ve looked every bit like a seventh seed since the second half of Detroit’s Game 4 win.
The Pistons scored on eight straight possessions in the first quarter of Game 5 and the outcome was all but decided with three quarters left. Now the Pistons lead in the series for the first time and are the first team to win consecutive games.
“You want to take care of things as quickly as possibly, because it can change quickly,” Pistons coach Flip Saunders said. “We’ve put together three solid halves, and we need to keep that up.”
The third-seeded Orlando Magic await the winner in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Sixers still believe they can be that team. They’re heading home - where they split Games 3 and 4 - and Andre Iguodala is coming off his best game of the series with a career playoff-high 21-point outing in Game 5.
“The series is over? C’mon, you’ve got to be kidding me,” center Samuel Dalembert said.
Dalembert caused a buzz with his new ‘do, a mohawk that makes him look like a leaner, longer B.A Baracus. He had his initials shaved on one side and the initials of a “loved one” inscribed on the other side. Dalembert asked Detroit native and 76ers guard Willie Green if he could send his barber over for a pregame cut on Tuesday. Dalembert was offered a fade by the barber, but the center had another idea.
“Next thing I know he’s got a mohawk,” Green said. “Besides that, we’ve got business to take care of, haircut or no haircut. I don’t care if he’s got a bald head, come tomorrow we’ve got business to take care of.”
Dalembert seemed agitated all the focus was on his hairstyle and not on the Game 5 loss. The normally affable center said he wanted to try something different to rally the 76ers and lighten the pressure.
“If it was a distraction for the team, I’m really sorry about that,” Dalembert said. “I don’t think it was.”
No, what bothered the Sixers more was their inability to stop Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton. Dalembert expressed his unhappiness over tailing Wallace instead of establishing himself in the paint and getting defensive help when the Pistons’ big man goes outside for a 3-pointer.
Wallace has 11 3s and 16 blocks in the series, almost besting the Sixers’ series totals of 20 blocks and 8-for-34 3-point shooting.
“It can be a little demoralizing when a guy makes the 3 the way he makes it,” Cheeks said. “But you’d rather make Rasheed shoot a challenged 3 as opposed to someone continually driving the basket and getting in the middle of your defense.”
The Pistons have been accused of “flipping a switch,” or, only playing like one of the best teams in the East when they really need a win. They were caught by surprise by the eager and energetic Sixers in a Game 1 loss and the stars were uninterested when Philly took a 24-point lead and won Game 3.
“They have that switch that they throw off and on,” Iguodala said. “They had it on last night.”
Saunders knows the Pistons don’t have to win Game 6, while the Sixers must win the game to keep their season alive. Still, he doesn’t necessarily believe the Pistons are only motivated when they’re being doubted.
“I didn’t even know about the switch until I got here and was told that they had one,” Saunders said. “Last night, I asked them to turn the switch on at 7:00, and that seemed to work.”
The Sixers entered the playoffs on a four-game losing streak and haven’t won two straight since the first two games of April. Philly needs more than Detroit’s switch on “off” for Game 6 to send Cheeks back to banter with those courtside fans one last time.
“They said they hoped we came back,” Cheeks said. “We had a little relationship throughout the series. I don’t know if they really meant it. Maybe they meant next year, I don’t know.”