A week from Friday, NBA training camps and the free agency period are expected to open. In looking at the 30 NBA rosters, some teams, like the Celtics, with just six players under contract, have many holes to fill. Meanwhile, the Sixers have fewer roster spots availablenine under contract, two restricted free agents and two rookiesmuch to the chagrin of the local fan base.
Throughout the summer, team president Rod Thorn and head coach Doug Collins have talked about free agency and who they should target. Here is what one can expect next Friday for the 76ers.
Weapons in the backcourt
The Sixers have an excellent starting point guard in Jrue Holiday, who will be starting his third season. His growth under Collins has been significant, having improved at both running the team as well as with his confidence to get a bucket when one was needed.
Starting at the two-guard spot last year was Jodie Meeks. If Meeks is in the starting lineup this year it will mean that Evan Turners jumper did not improve enough. Turner will earn a spot in the starting lineup if the work he put in under shooting guru Herb Magee turns him into a threat from the outside.
Meeks, in a back-up role, gives Collins a legitimate three-point shooter off the bench.
Andre Iguodala will never be that scoring star this city has desperately wanted since the departure of Allen Iverson. But he will be is healthy and, hopefully, shooting a higher percentage at the line. Injuries forced Iguodala to miss 15 games a year ago, and he shot just 69 percent at the foul line.
Many people criticize the 14 points he averaged, but he is not a high-volume shooter (11 FGA) and he is a good and willing passer (5.8 assists). If No. 9 could get to the line as he did his third year in the league when he averaged 7.3 free-throw attempts and shot a career best 82 percent, his scoring average would increase to 17 points.
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Add to that that an engaged Iguodala is always a formidable defender.
The down low
That leaves us with the starting front court. Elton Brand has two years remaining on his Philly Max contract and he is coming off the most productive of his three seasons here.
Brand still has his detractors who want the player that once averaged close to 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. To be fair, however, Brand averaged 10 or more rebounds only twice in his career. The rest of his career he has hovered around nine boards a contest and last year was the rule, not the exception (8.7) to go with his team-leading 15.4 points.
There are many who would prefer to see restricted free agent Thaddeus Young start instead of Brand. Young had a marvelous fourth season where he played in all 82 games (only one as a starter), averaged 26 minutes, 12.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and shot a career-best 54 percent from the floor. Those numbers garnered him a third-place finish in the sixth man of the year award.
Young came off the bench because that works for this group in terms of chemistry and styleit is not a slight toward his talents.
Youngs reserve running mate, Lou Williams, has proven his value as an energetic scoring punch to back up either guard position. Like Young, Williams had a solid 2010-11 season where he averaged 13.7 points and finished sixth in the sixth man of the year voting.
Which brings us to the center position
Everyone wants that star big man and few land him. Spencer Hawes patrolled the paint a year ago with Elton Brand backing him up when Collins went with the small lineup. But Hawes, like Young, is a restricted free agent. The Sixers made qualifying offers to both players before the lockout began. Under the old CBA, qualifying offers were not guaranteed, but moving forward, they will be.
Tough choices
A question that remains is if the Sixers pursue a free-agent center and acquire him, who do they have as his back-up? Is it Hawes or rookie big man, Nikola Vucevic?
Free agent centers include: Tyson Chandler, Nene Hilrio, Nenad Krystic, Joel Pryzbilla, Samuel Dalembert and Kwame Brown to name a few. Restricted free-agent big men include Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan.
The Sixers are a little more than 3 million under the salary cap, including the qualifying offers to Hawes and Young. They can use the mid-level exception to sign a free agent, which is approximately 5 million that is non-tax paying, though it would put them over the cap. Teams that are less than 5 million over the 58 million cap will pay 1.50 for every dollar over. That should encourage teams to spend their money wisely.
Marreese Speights, Andres Nocioni and Lavoy Allen are names on the roster with question marks.
After averaging 16 minutes and eight points a game in each of his first two seasons, Speights averaged 11.5 minutes and 5.4 points in his third season. Speights has shown a knack for scoring quickly but defensively he struggles. Given the drafting of Vucevic and the numbers the rookie put up playing in Montenegro this fall, Speights could fall farther out of the rotation.
Andres Nocioni just finished playing a four-day basketball tournament in Argentina where he made 30,000. He has this year left on his contract at 6.65 million and a team option for next year. In an e-mail from the NBA editor of the Argentinean sports newspaper, Ol, the editor said he had a recent conversation with Nocioni where the 32-year old told him the 76ers didn't want him and that he was going to Philly to talk to management about a way out.
The feeling that he is, not wanted could stem from playing the fewest minutes (931) of his NBA career last season.
Amnesty is one way out and trading him is another even though Nocionis numbers from last year would not warrant the near 7 million he is owed.
Allen has been playing well in France. He was a second-round pick so he is not guaranteed a roster spot. If he earns a roster spot he will likely take on the role of Craig Brackins, who last year was active for just three games.
A year of playing overseas professionally can only help Allen professionally down the road. Former Temple owl Marc Jackson travelled such a road years back.
By the Numbers
According to the NBA, teams will play 48 conference games and 18 out of conference. The Sixers will play six west-coast teams at home, six on the road and three teams in a home and home.
E-mail Dei Lynam at dlynam@comcastsportsnet.com