Billy King has said that re-signing forward Kenny Thomas is the 76ers' top priority. The Sixers president/general manager also has said, "you need big guys in this league."

Preparing for the NBA's free-agency period that begins tomorrow, the Sixers have made Thomas - a restricted free agent - the qualifying offer that allows them to retain a right of first refusal on any offer he might get from another team.

Mark McNeil, Thomas' agent, confirmed that the offer was in place, but declined any additional comment. Even though teams can begin negotiating with free agents tomorrow, they cannot finalize contracts until July 16.

Thomas, a 6-7 forward acquired from the Houston Rockets in a three-way deal with the Denver Nuggets at last season's trade deadline, averaged 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds in 46 games. Averaging 32.4 minutes in playoff games, he contributed 10.6 points and 9.3 rebounds.

He was listed on the 2002-03 salary cap at $1,557,683. The qualifying offer is worth $2,225,526, but is open to negotiation.

In an unrelated situation, today represents a deadline for Sixers forward Monty Williams to decide whether to invoke his option on a $1 million contract for the coming season.

The NBA draft was the beginning, a way for the 76ers to address their need for an outside shooter.

But the real work begins Tuesday, when free agency starts, when 76ers president Billy King will put all of his energy into signing a big man who can make a big difference on a veteran team that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals last season.

And there will be plenty of big men available who could help the 76ers, specifically Miami's Alonzo Mourning, Denver's Juwan Howard, Indiana's Brad Miller and perhaps the Clippers' Michael Olowokandi or Elton Brand or New Orleans' P.J. Brown.

It's just a question of whether the 76ers can afford any of them.

It is the most desired and lacking skill in the NBA - the ability to shoot from the perimeter. One of the worst-shooting teams is the New Jersey Nets, who shot 37 percent in the NBA Finals against San Antonio.

The Nets took a player many labeled the best shooter in the draft in 6-foot-7 Kyle Korver of Creighton with the 51st pick in the second round and then traded his rights to the 76ers for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Nets general manager Rod Thorn issued a statement in response to questions about Korver and why a team that can't shoot would trade the best shooter in the draft to an Atlantic Division rival.

"He's a good player who can really shoot the ball, and we really didn't have any spots on our team and Philly made a good [move]," Thorn said.

Granted, Korver shot 48 percent from three-point range as a senior and 45.3 percent for his career, but doing it against Missouri Valley Conference teams and duplicating that in the NBA are two different things. Still, it's curious that the Nets didn't have room for a proven college shooter.

In a late flurry of activity, the 76ers went for shooting in last night's NBA draft. Lacking a first-round pick, the Sixers made two trades and ended up with two players known for their marksmanship.

As the night wound down, the Sixers finally made a move, trading the 50th pick and an undisclosed amount of cash to Seattle for Willie Green, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Detroit Mercy whom the SuperSonics had selected with the 41st pick.

The pick at No. 50 that the Sixers traded to Seattle was Paccelis Morlende, a 6-2 guard from France.

The Sixers then acquired the rights to 6-7 swingman Kyle Korver of Creighton University, the 51st overall pick, from the New Jersey Nets for an undisclosed amount of cash.

"These are two guys we targeted and players who can score," said Billy King, Sixers president and general manager. "I think Kyle Korver is the best shooter in the draft. Both bring something to the team we don't have."

Hours after lambasting former 76ers coach Larry Brown on a local morning radio show, Pat Croce, Brown's former boss, didn't shy away from his comments at all.

Reached by telephone last night, Croce, the former Sixers president, repeated what he said on WIP-AM (610). He blasted Brown for getting on Allen Iverson's tardiness at practice, and for "lying" when he said he "never had final say" as vice president of basketball operations in his six-year stint in Philadelphia.

"That statement alone was an insult to Billy King and to me," Croce said, referring to the current Sixers president. "I love Larry. I've always had a good relationship with Larry. But for him to come out and say what he said was completely false. It was wrong."

Croce also said Brown had attempted to miss practices himself.

"I had to call Larry to practice a few times," Croce said. "There were a couple of times I personally had to call him at home to come into work because he didn't want to come. There was a time when I had to address the team and let them know he wouldn't be in because he was contemplating whether or not he was going to quit."

Penn's Ugonna Onyekwe had just finished working out for the New York Knicks.

All that was left for the London native after the eighth stop on a five-week itinerary was tonight's NBA draft.

"It feels good to be done," Onyekwe said in a phone interview on Tuesday from New York. "Now it's totally out of my hands, and it's a waiting game from here on out. I think I did a good job. We'll see how it translates on Thursday."

The 6-8 Onyekwe, a high-jumping small forward, was thought of highly enough to be one of 66 players invited to the league's Chicago predraft camp earlier this month. He appears to have a legitimate chance of getting picked in the second round of the draft.

" 'U' is versatile," said George Rodecker of Hoopla, the draft report affiliated with CollegeSports.com. "He can do things with and without the ball. He's the kind of guy who could stick around for years."

Inside the Westin Hotel just off Broadway, in a ballroom overflowing with media representatives who came to rave about someone else, sat Dwyane Wade, the perfect amalgam of class, professionalism - and obscurity. People looked right past him. Despite his 210-pound presence, others looked right around him. Being a first-team all-American, leading Marquette to the Final Four while recording only the third triple-double in NCAA tournament history, evidently wasn't noteworthy.

Wade, after all, was not LeBron James.

Wade had no diamond-encrusted necklace. No $90 million contract with Nike. No surefire projection as the No. 1 overall pick in tonight's NBA draft at The Theater in Madison Square Garden.

Just everything else.

The son of Dwyane Sr. and Jolinda Wade. A husband to his childhood sweetheart, Siohvaugn. A father to their son, Zaire. And an NBA prospect at the tender age of 21.

Take one peek inside David Stern's office on any given afternoon and it's easy to assume that Wade - and anyone like him - would be atop the commissioner's wish list. The NBA may have moved ahead of major-league baseball into second place in popularity, but Stern isn't stupid.

The 76ers have no illusions entering tonight's NBA draft. Without a first-round pick, the brain trust at Sixers draft central will have a long wait. The team won't have much hope of landing a sleeper at the 50th pick in the second round, when the Sixers finally get to select a player.

The Sixers traded their first-round pick and Roshown McLeod to Boston for Jerome Moiso in 2001. (Moiso never played a game in a Sixers uniform; he was dealt to the Hornets as part of a three-team deal that brought Derrick Coleman to Philadelphia in October 2001.)

There are other options, such as moving up in the draft, but the Sixers shouldn't be expected to vault all the way to the first round.

A number of teams, however, would like to rid themselves of a first-round pick. That's because the 29 first-rounders are guaranteed three-year contracts, with the amount of each contract depending on the draft slot. Even the 29th player is guaranteed nearly $2.16 million over the three years.

With the impending luxury tax, many teams would like to get rid of a three-year guaranteed deal for someone who may not be more than the 11th or 12th player on the roster.

A possible strategy is for the Sixers to move up higher in the second round.

When San Antonio guard Steve Kerr came off the bench to hit big shots in the Western Conference finals and the NBA championship series, it might have given the 76ers optimism.

Kerr was the 50th selection in the 1988 draft, by the Phoenix Suns. The Sixers, who traded away their first-round choice this season, have the 50th pick in Thursday's NBA draft. The pick is their first.

The fact that a player such as Kerr, who has won five NBA championship rings, was selected 50th could offer hope for the Sixers. But based on the recent staying power of the 50th pick, it could also turn out to be false optimism.

On the whole, players selected 50th don't stand a good chance of staying on a roster. And if they do, they likely won't contribute much.

In addition to Kerr, two other 50th picks who have made it are Atlanta's Chris Crawford and Phoenix's Alton Ford, both of whom ended the season on the injured list.

New 76ers coach Randy Ayers has made it a point to be respectful of his predecessor, Larry Brown, in the weeks since Brown's departure.

But that doesn't mean Ayers will implement the same style of play as the man he succeeded.

Ayers, introduced as Brown's replacement Friday, still wants the Sixers to play good defense and rebound. But Brown's former assistant said that incorporating a transition game will be a key to the team's success.

"The biggest thing [Brown] taught me was game management," Ayers said. "I thought he managed a game as well as anyone, so I'm going to try to expand on that. But we will try to be a little more up-tempo."

That was Ayers' way of saying that the Sixers' offense had become too stagnant, too predictable.