New GM gives Sixers fans
hope for the future

Off the Dribble
By Ryan Smith

In less than two months, new 76ers general manager Ed Stefanski has done what the team’s former front-office head, Billy King, failed to do throughout his five-year tenure as GM: demonstrate that he has a plan.
With the recent trade of fifth-year guard Kyle Korver, the best shooter on a team that already lacked offensive threats, Stefanski sent a clear message to the Sixers’ fan base: You can forget about this season, but know that the future is bright.
With King at the helm, you just never got the feeling that he could see much further into the future than the next game on the schedule.
It took King far too long to trade Allen Iverson.
Iverson, who was sent to Denver last season, should have been sent packing at least a season earlier. And even when King finally did pull the trigger on the Iverson move, you got the feeling that he was satisfied with the roster he was left with.
King would have been content to watch the post-Iverson group grow together into the mediocre squad they were destined to become.
With a 13-16 record at the time of the Korver trade, the Sixers found themselves — as hard as it is to fathom — right in the mix for what would be the final Eastern Conference playoff spot if the season were to end.
If King were still GM, I don’t believe that he would have had the stomach to trade away one of the league’s premier three-point shooters who is in the prime of his career.
My guess is that King would have been happy to (once again) compete for a low-seed playoff berth and go into this offseason with about $5 million to spend on a free agent.
But that wouldn’t have been enough, and Stefanski knows it.
In trading Korver, Stefanski has most likely dissolved any small chance the Sixers had of squeaking into the postseason this year. Make no mistake about it: Korver’s average of 10 points per game and his ultra-clutch shooting will be missed.
But Stefanski knows it’s for the best.
In exchange for Korver, the Sixers received a first-round draft pick from the Jazz. But more important, they also acquired Gordan Giricek and his expiring contract.
Korver, who is earning nearly $4.4 million this year, has $15.4 million owed to him in the next three years.
Giricek, who is making $4 million this year, has a contract that ends after this season.
This now means, according to Stefanski, that the Sixers are an estimated $10 million under next year’s salary cap, which may be the most room for any team in the league.
"We felt this was a move for the plan that we have made to look to try to secure cap space in the summer," Stefanski said during a conference call. "The pick could be a player or a chip in a future trade."
Also during the conference call, Stefanski added that Korver’s trade benefits four of the team’s young guards, as far as receiving more playing time — Thaddeus Young, Willie Green, Rodney Carney and Lou Williams.
The move allows coach Maurice Cheeks to evaluate this group as the Sixers head into what will be the most pivotal offseason the franchise has seen since 1996, when it owned the No. 1 pick in the draft.
That pick got them Iverson.
And while Giricek had fallen out of favor in Utah, averaging just 4.3 points and 1.7 rebounds in only 12.7 minutes per game, he still has the potential to give the Sixers a lift off the bench with Korver gone.
In fact, his career numbers are similar to Korver’s.
In his sixth NBA season, Giricek has appeared in 350 games, including 191 starts, and has posted averages of 9.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 23.6 minutes per game.
If the Croatian native can give the Sixers some quality minutes off the bench, this trade could turn out to be one for the ages. ••