Allen Iverson knows what the Sixers have to do to improve next year. Comcast Sportsnet's Andy Schwartz reports that Iverson made an appearance at the Sixers' free agent mini-camp on thursday.

Even though he didn't participate in the drills, he did say he would begin workouts on Monday. He also gave his opinion on the direction the Sixers should go this summer.

"We need to bring a couple of guys in here that can score the basketball," Iverson said. "We haven't had a guy score 30 points [in a game] besides myself since [Jerry] Stackhouse left, and that was 4? years ago. When you look at that statistic right there, it lets you know that you do need to score. I'm the only one to score 30 points or more in 4? years, you obviously know that you need some more offense, but you've got to get better at defense as well."

"It will make it easier on everybody," he said. "It will be hard for guys to doubleteam me. Hopefully, you get a guy that can really score, and he can attract some doubleteams, and maybe I'll be left open."

Iverson added that he was optimistic about next season. "I feel good about everything right now. I'm looking forward to getting back in there and proving everybody wrong all over again."

Tom Moore of Phillyburbs.com reports that Sixers GM Billy King expects changes in the offseason. The Sixers need to address a lack of athleticism in the frontcourt and a lack of reliable shooting. The salary cap will be a big factor in determining what kind of moves are made.

The Sixers have Derrick Coleman and Matt Geiger's contracts coming off their cap after the 02-03 season. This additional room could allow Philly to dive into the free agent market. With players like Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd, Elton Brand, Antonio McDyess, Baron Davis, Rasheed Wallace and Lamar Odom likely to be free agents at that time, it is definitely an attractive proposal.

But should they trade for the best players available and not worry about their contract status? Or should they try to make a major deal that'd bring a player with only one or two years on his contract?

"There's probably a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C," said King. "You talk to people, and the plan tends to develop. If you're going for cap room, you've still got to put a team out there. We're not in a position where we're going to rebuild. There's no guarantee if you get cap room, you're going to get the player you want."

King said, "The whole premise is, can you get 'em? If you can't, then you're sitting there with a whole lot of cap room and you decimated your team. You're like, 'Now where do we go?'"

With Dikembe Mutombo having three years and almost $50 million remaining on his contract, he is a prime candidate to be traded. With the Western teams looking for a way to combat Shaquille O'neal, a trade for Mutombo could be a possibility.

When asked if any Western teams are calling to discuss Mutombo, King smiled and said, "Good try. I would never answer that." King did say that the Sixers have to improve their slow power forward/center combo of Coleman and Mutombo. "We're trying to get more athletic - that's the main thing," he said.

As for the Sixers' need for a shooter, King explained that they're "always looking for a shooter who fits the way we play. He's got to be able to do more than just shoot the basketball."

Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports that Alex Carcamo is one of the free agents participating in the Sixers' mini-camp. Carcamo's story is like a lot of NBA hopefulls: junior college, small Division 1 school, overseas pro leagues. Alex Carcamo gets a little more attention than the other free agents these days because of who he's played against.

Carcamo played in China's pro league against 7-5 center Yao Ming.

Carcamo averaged 32 points for Shenzhen, his Chinese team, and scored 49 and 36 points in two games against Yao's Shanghai Sharks, losing both.

Yao averaged 32.4 points and 19 rebounds per game for the Sharks during the season and increased those numbers to 41 and 21 during the Chineese championship playoff series.

"I think he's a phenomenal player," Carcamo said. "You can't teach athleticism, and for 7-5, he's athletic. He passes well out of double teams; he's a finesse player right now, but he works hard.

"I think he'll be a great player as long as somebody works with him. Not too many coaches work with big men these days. It's as if, once they're in the league, they're expected to know the fundamentals. The league in China is good and competitive, but a lot of the coaches there don't work with the big men. Ming is going off his athleticism right now."

"Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning are two of the best centers in the NBA, and Ming is more skilled than they are," Carcamo said. "He just needs body weight. You can't teach Shaq to shoot 15-footers smoothly. They say Yao doesn't play inside, but he can play to the basket, can play good defense, can block shots."

Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel reports: Basketball legend Julius Erving has filed a lawsuit against a security guard company and the developer of Alaqua Lakes, blaming them for the death of his 19-year-old son, who drove into a retention pond and drowned two years ago.

Cory Erving disappeared May 28, 2000, setting off a major manhunt and weeks of agony for his family. His body was found five weeks later a half-mile from his home when the Seminole County Sheriff's Office dragged a small irrigation pond and found his car at the bottom.

Investigators concluded he was doing the same thing he had often done before -- taking a shortcut home on a dirt road used by Alaqua Lakes construction crews. This time, though, investigators theorized, he didn't see the pond, maybe because of debris piled up beside the road, and plunged into the water.

Erving's home was in a neighboring subdivision, Alaqua.

The lawsuit, filed in state circuit court Tuesday, makes two major accusations:

U.S. Security Associates Inc., the company that provided security guards at the entrance of Alaqua Lakes, knew Erving was on the property that day, should never have let him on the property and, once he went missing, never told anyone that he had been there.

Developer Taylor Woodrow Communities GP didn't have adequate fences or other barricades to keep people out and failed to post warnings that its property was dangerous.

Keith Bass, president of Taylor Woodrow Homes of Florida Inc., a partner in the development company, would not comment Wednesday, saying he hadn't seen the lawsuit.

There was conflicting information, though, about what the security company knew.

"We never suspected he was on the property," Vincent Farrell, local operations manager for U.S. Security, said Wednesday.

However, a sheriff's investigator interviewed security guard Shantel Crosby, who was working at the guardhouse on the day Cory Erving disappeared said a black male she didn't know drove up in a black car, asked for permission to drive in, and she let him. She said she remembered him because his seat was reclined so far back.

Cory Erving's car -- a 1999 black Volkswagen Passat -- was found in the pond with its driver's seat fully extended.

The suit seeks unspecified damages.

Julius Erving, a former NBA All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers and now executive vice president of the Orlando Magic, did not return phone calls. Neither did his attorney, Madison B. McClellan of Stuart.

The suit names nearly two dozen defendants, many of them affiliates of Taylor Woodrow. It also names a land-clearing company and a lake inspection company.

The lake inspection company may have been named because its employees did not spot the car in the water, although they had checked the pond for environmental and irrigation problems several days after the accident.

The pond was in an undeveloped section of Alaqua Lakes, a wooded area where brush was pushed into piles to be burned.

Jeanette Pierre, a friend of Cory's, told investigators that Cory had once taken her on a wild ride through that undeveloped area in his mother's Mercedes Benz, spinning doughnuts and veering off the road.

An accident reconstruction expert estimated his speed the day he drowned at about 35 mph.

An autopsy found a small amount of cocaine in his blood, but officials concluded it was not a factor in the accident.

The Sixers are expected to make changes this off-season, fresh off a 43-39 year and a first-round loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Of the 15 players, seven are free agents and an eighth, forward Matt Harpring, is an unrestricted free agent.

Beginning today, the coaching staff will conduct a three-day minicamp at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. The team has invited 20 free agents, who will go through two daily workouts today and tomorrow and a single workout Friday.

The free agents hope to be invited to compete for the Sixers' entry in the Boston Summer League, in which competition will take place from July 15 to July 20.

The most familiar name may be forward Nate Johnson, from Camden, The Inquirer's South Jersey player of the year in 1996 and a four-year starter at Louisville.

Another local product will be center Geoff Owens, a Penn graduate who attended Bishop Eustace in Pennsauken. Owens, who played professionally last season in Poland, is the grandson of Paul Owens, the longtime Phillies executive.

An intriguing prospect is 19-year-old Ousmane Cisse, who was drafted by Denver in the second round in 2001 from St. Jude High in Alabama. Cisse was the 47th overall selection.

The 6-foot-8 forward failed his physical because of a torn knee ligament and was waived by the Nuggets before the season.

Six of the free agents, including Johnson, played this season in the NBA Developmental League (NBDL).

Johnson was an honorable mention all-NBDL choice after averaging 13.7 points. Another invitee, forward Sedric Webber, was a second-team all-NBDL choice.

Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports:
No, the 76ers have not traded their No. 16 pick in the first round of the NBA draft. No, the Sixers have not struck a deal with the Golden State Warriors. Yes, the Sixers are listening to any and all offers. Yes, they do that every year.

After an ESPN Insider report that claimed Philadelphia and Golden State may have already reached an agreement to trade the #16 pick, Sixers GM Billy King denied the reports.

"We have not agreed to trade our pick to Golden State or anybody else at this time," King said yesterday.

Insider reported the information was gathered from a "league source" and offerred the fact that the Sixers haven't even started working out potential draftees as potential evidence.

The Sixers can't trade their first round pick before the draft because they may have to trade next season's first round pick as a result of the Roshown McLeod/Jerome Moiso trade with Boston. By league rule, a team cannot go back-to-back years without a first round pick, and since the pick the Sixers owe the Celtics is lottery-protected, it cannot be traded in advance. Also, by league rule, a team can draft a player, then trade simply the player instead of the pick, but King said the Sixers "have no deals at this time."

In any case, Warriors general manager Garry St. Jean has declined all interview requests and has made no comments since last Sunday's lottery.

We have all heard of the high schoolers Kwame Brown, Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry and DaSagana Diop in last year?s draft, but few remember Ousmane Cisse.  Cisse was taken by the Denver Nuggets in the second round but after a dispute he never played in a game.  

Donald Jackson, Cisse?s agent, said the Nuggets wanted to fail Cisse on his physical, then retain his rights as he spent a season overseas, a scenario resisted by Cisse and Jackson. The players association filed a grievance on Cisse's behalf, but his status as a free agent wasn't resolved for several months. In the interim, he remained in Alabama, working on his skills and conditioning.

And now he gets a chance to play for the team he preferred to be with all the time.  Cisse met with the Philadelphia Sixercoaches and underwent a physical under quiet circumstances during the season, and now he is expected to take part in the Sixers three-day camp starting Wednesday for pro free agents who are not under contract or have their rights held by any team in the league.

"The Sixers were his preference all along," said Donald Jackson, Cisse's agent and guardian. "Coming out of high school last season, he worked out for 10 or 12 teams, but he came in knowing quite a bit about [Sixers coach] Larry Brown. Sometimes, you just click with a person, and I think that's what happened here.?

"Ousmane's reputation is that he's the hardest-working kid around, and he felt Brown could push him to reach his potential."

"We thought he was one of the top high school players last season, but he suffered a knee injury," said Tony DiLeo, the Sixers' director of player personnel. "When he worked out for teams in our league, he was probably about 60 to 70 percent, and he dropped [to No. 47, taken by Denver in the second round]. We thought that, healthy, he could have been a first-round pick."

The Sixers are holding a 3-day training camp next week to take a look at some free agents. They've invited some pro players who are not under contract or have their rights held by any team in the league. Among the notables invited are Johnny Taylor, a former first-round pick of Orlando; Tony Rutland, a high school teammate of Allen Iverson; Tang Hamilton, who began this season as a starting forward with Miami; and Nate Johnson, from Camden High and Louisville.

The big name on the camp roster is Ousmane Cisse.

Phil Jasner of the Daily News reports that the Sixers wanted a look at a healthy Cisse to see what he can do. "We thought he was one of the top high school players last season, but he suffered a knee injury," said Tony DiLeo, the Sixers' director of player personnel. "When he worked out for teams in our league, he was probably about 60 to 70 percent, and he dropped [to No. 47, taken by Denver in the second round]. We thought that, healthy, he could have been a first-round pick."

Donald Jackson, Cisse's agent and guardian said, "He's trying to turn a negative into a positive. I believe when he goes on the floor this time, they'll see a bigger, stronger version of what they saw the first time."

The good news for Philadelphia guard Speedy Claxton and Sixers fans alike is that Claxton underwent successful surgery yesterday to repair a left torn labrum (thickening material that lines the shoulder joint, prevents abnormal movement and serves as an anchor according to Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News), but the bad news is that he will be out until the October training camp.

Claxton has had a bad start to his career injury wise, missing his entire first season after a knee reconstruction then missing 15 games this year with a variety of injuries and ailments.

"Everything went fine," Dr. Jack McPhilemy said. McPhilemy is the Sixers orthopedic surgeon, but he only observed the procedure which performed by Dr. Craig Morgan. "Speedy had a labral tear of his left shoulder, which was repaired. He is expected to be ready for the opening of training camp. Speedy will begin a rehab program in about a week and continue until the start of training camp."

After being plagued by injuries throughout the season, the 76ers continue to have problems in the off-season.

Today, reserve guard Speedy Claxton will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder to repair an injury suffered at the end of the regular season, the Sixers announced yesterday. Also, reserve Raja Bell sprained a ligament in his left thumb during a recent workout and will wear a cast for the next three weeks.

Surgeon Craig Morgan will repair the torn left labrum in Claxton's shoulder today at Wilmington Hospital in Delaware. The recovery time will be determined after the surgery, according to the Sixers.

This is the second time since the Sixers picked Claxton in the first round of the 2000 draft that he has had to have surgery. After tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament during the 2000-01 preseason, Claxton missed the season and, therefore, was classified as a rookie this season.