Sixers Deal Carney, Booth, and First-Rounder to Clear Cap Space for Big Signing

Ed Stefanski has completed a deal sending Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth, and a future first-round pick to Minnesota in exchange for the T'Wolves' $2.8 million salary cap exemption. Jesus the NBA salary cap structure is weird. Adrian Wojnarski of Yahoo Sports describes the ensuing situation as follows:

Stefanski’s intentions are clear: Get into the bidding with the Clippers and Warriors for Brand or make an offer to the Hawks restricted free agent, Smith, that will be too steep for Atlanta ownership to match.

Getting Carney and Booth off the cap gives the Sixers the chance to offer a starting salary of approximately $14 million a season. The Sixers won’t know the precise figure until the league announces next season’s salary cap on Tuesday.

The 76ers have the luxury of going hard after Brand, 29, until he decides on a team. Most league executives still believe he’ll return to the Clippers for a five-year, $70 million deal, which is about $20 million less than the Warriors are offering. Nevertheless, this salary dump gives the Sixers the flexibility to get into the competitive bidding for Brand.

One league executive believes Brand has delayed his decision on returning to Los Angeles with hopes that Stefanski could cut this deal and make him a comparable offer to that of the Clips.

So who will it be? Brand or Smith? The "injury-risk" guy or the "work-ethic" guy? Whatever the case, it's sounding like next season's squad will look increasingly less like last year's, hopefully for the better.

Comments

[Brett]

Throw money at Brand if he goes back to LA then throw money at Smith either way theyll be improved.

[TheCoz]

I'm sorry, but Smith being 22 years-old is the trump card in choosing between him and Brand. I don't think Andre Miller and Brand, both in or near their 30s, are a championship contender. Weren't those two the nucleus of the 2004 LA Clippers?

[enrico]

Does this officially make the Carney pick a bust?

[Brett]

Oh and ill take the injury risk over the work ethic. Smith would get eviserated if hes not hustling on plays. Brand is a proven leader and nice guy and a good to great player, not an easy combo to find

[Kulp]

I like Elton Brand if he is the final piece, and I like Josh Smith if the team is still a year or two away.

[John]

I'm not buying either of these moves. Does getting Elton Brand or Josh Smith really make the Sixers the favorite in the East or even a legit contender? I think not. I would rather have Smith if the Sixers pull the trigger on a deal b/c of his age and upside, but even then I don't think it's enough. They still need a shooter and I can see them signing Brand to a huge deal only for him to get hurt and get paid to sit out the season. I'm just picturing the future Daily News article of bad Stefanski moves listing the Brand signing as #1

[johndewar]

I like both of Smith and Brand, if for no other reason, that Stefanski seems to have a plan and is trying to put something together. You can almost smell relevancy for this team. Or a franchise crippling contract. Either way, I'm excited to at least give it a shot.

As for Carney: Not sure you can say he's a bust, so much as maybe miscast and misused.

How much did we really know about Carney before Stefanski got here? I'd argue that we didn't know anything him and and it was only after Stefanski got here that the team played a style more suited to Carney's skill set (using his athleticism to run the floor, slashing to the basket).

[Brett]

Brand's career average is 20.3 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 2.1 blks with a .505 FG%
Even in the 8 games after his injury: 17.6 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 1.9 blk, .456 fg%

Josh Smith last year 17,2 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 2.8 blk the only big difference is 1.5 st from smith.

Id rather have the better half court offense, and I think Brand is the better player. But you can doa lot worse than Smith.

[Brett]

Smith had a .445 fg% btw.

[Phils Phan]

To the unnamed conglomerate of Phillies owners:

Note this. Do something big. Not just now, but whenever it's obvious you have a championship-caliber core (the 76ers showed that, with maturity, they can... and my God, I hope will... be a contender) that needs a few missing pieces.

[John]

Phils Phan, did you miss the quote from the Phillies front office? After they were asked about getting pitching before the deadline they said, "Probably someone from the B list"

[AndyG]

Carney wasn't even a draft pick. We drafted Thabo Sefolosha and then traded for Carney, a future draft pick (Herbert Hill...I think) and cash.

Overall, the fact he maintained enough potential value to get Minny to agree to lease us cap space...not a total bust. There's really not much else we could have done in that draft. Rajon Rondo was about the only half-decent guy taken after him if I remember correctly.

Basically, I'd say getting Carney was actually one of the better things we could have done there.

[Brett]

Josh Boone and jordan Farmar were drafted after him. Nothing much else

[Gerry]

I sure hope that future 1st round pick is lottery protected.

[Gerry]

I sure hope that future 1st round pick is lottery protected.

[AndyG]

Yeah...and because opponents send 3 guys at Kobe, Farmar never is actually defended. I'm pretty sure to other teams, he doesn't have much more value than Carney.

[Chewy Wellington]

This is what I hate about the NBA salary cap. The real solution for the league is to eliminate guaranteed contracts.

As far as players picked after Carney I would have liked: Rondo, Marcus Williams, Kyle Lowry, Millsap.

Giving up the first rounder stings...would have liked to at least get a second back. If we don't get Brand or Smith this offseason is getting real ugly, real fast.

How could we not swing a trade to Memphis. Wallace is probably the dumbest gm in the league and supposed likes Carney. Oh well.

[Brett]

Well Farmar is a point guard that can play with Kobe, thats saying something.

Meh Marcus williams was replaced by Devin Harris and is a backup at this point. As for Kyle Lowry they brough in 2 Pgs AFTER he was drafted and are younger than him

[Scott Sargent]

Now if only Danny Ferry could turn garbage players into cap space...

[j13]

I still don't think either of these guys are worth it. Sit on the cash, let iggy go, wait until a real impact player is there before dropping the huge contract. Signing these kinds of guys ensures playoff births, not the championship I really want.

[AndyG]

Brett, I just meant Farmar's value to LA is higher than it would be elsewhere because of what the team expects from him. He obviously did a fine job in his role.

jt, I kind of agree with you. But there are so many variables out there. On paper, waiting for the perfect situation is awesome, but it rarely plays out that way. If Sixers management thinks we can make a run with Brand, it's probably worth a shot. I mean...Miller could be done after this season and then we're looking for two pieces rather than one.

Just my view on it.

[Jimmy]

I like both these guys, but I don't like the money they're throwing at them. I'd much rather wait til next season when the free agent market looks much much better.

[Steve]

I feel like we're in a golden age for GMs (if there can be such a thing) for Philly these days. Stefanski, Paul Holmgren of the Flyers, and Pat Gillick of the Phillies are the best GMs any of those teams have had since the 80s. Holmgren took one year to bring the Flyers from last place to the conference finals, Stefanski has built a solid nucleus of young players and looks to make a big signing to put the Sixers in contention in the East, and Gillick put the pieces together to bring the Phillies back to the playoffs for the first time since 1993 (I don't know the Eagles GM Tom Heckert's track record, but Joe Banner has been nothing short of brilliant as team president). There just HAS to be a championship for Philly in the future with guys like that at the helm.

[TH]

I hate to break it to you, Steve, but most of the Phils' pieces were Ed Wade jobs. Gillick has been hit-or-miss thus far. I mean, he traded Gavin Floyd for two months of Freddy Garcia. He signed Adam Eaton and Wes Helms. Those are offset by Jamie Moyer, Pedro Feliz, Brad Lidge and JC Romero, but with the exception of Lidge and maybe Romero, that's not all that much. Burrell, Howard, Utley, Rollins, Victorino and Hamels are all Wade acquisitions. Jolly Cholly is a Wade hire. Say what you want about Wade and some of his boners, but he doesn't have an Isiah Thomas track record (doesn't mean I want him here though).

As for the PF situation... I don't know. Smith is younger, but he doesn't play back to the basket and won't give you the inside presence you need to let Sammy freelance offensively or defensively (although he does grab rebounds, which is nice). Brand is the better, traditional option, but he's older and is injury prone. Then, there's Okafor, whom Anthony Gargano swears is available. I wouldn't mind taking a shot with him, but he's also got injury problems and isn't really much of an offensive threat, which means we'd almost have to trade for a starting 2 who can create his own shot. With Brand and Smith, we'd have to do that too, but it wouldn't be as pressing.

I just don't know anymore.

[Phils Phan]

Stafanski and Holmgren FTW; Gillick FTL.

[Phils Phan]

But, in fairness, I also think Gillick's hands have been tied by ownership. So, we may be judging based on his highly regulated deals.

[Chewy Wellington]

Holmgren has done an amazing job but the rest have a lot left to prove.

Gillick - acquisitions have been hit or miss and more often miss. If he makes the right pickup before the deadline, I'm sure we'll all sing his praises.

Stefanski - So far he has given up Korver, Carney, and Booth for cap room. we better wait to see who he picks up.

Eagles - we could probably argue this for days on end, so I won't touch this at the moment.

[TH]

I wouldn't say Gillick FTL. He hasn't been that bad, but he also deserves a lot of the criticism he gets.

I'll tell you this though; if he trades Carrasco et al. to Seattle for Bedard and then decides to take the Ms up on their offer for the GM job after this season, I'll be pissed beyond belief.

[GreggyD]

BREAKING!!!

Just got a text from ESPN saying that Marc Stein is reporting the Sixers have signed Elton Brand to a 5 year, $82 million deal.

Looks like he's been the apple of their eye the whole time. God I hope this works out.

[GreggyD]

The Warriors lose out on the Brand sweepstakes so they go and steal Maggette away from the Clippers. LA is sitting there dumbfounded with an amazing point guard who has no one to pass the ball too. Baron Davis meanwhile is cursing himself for leaving.

[TH]

Wow, so Magette didn't go to the Cs for the midlevel extension anyway.

An aside, I have no idea why he came out of college when he did. He was the sixth man at Duke for a year and then came out... not even like he came from HS guns blazing. He rode pine. Not surprising to me why he's been so underwhelming in the pros (albeit he's had a long career)