While Elton Brand isn?t Kevin Garnett and won?t historically improve a Sixers? team that made the playoffs the way the reigning Defensive Player of the Year did last season, this is unquestionably a major move for the franchise; the most significant since they drafted Allen Iverson in 1996.
He only played in eight games last season due to injury, but he has been extremely durable throughout the course of his career. He is one of the craftiest power forwards in history, and his skill set should translate throughout the entire course of this five-year contract where he?ll be playing at the ages of 29-33.
With so many other athletic players on their club, adding Josh Smith would have been a duplication and he is not nearly the kind of pure scorer Brand has been throughout his underappreciated career.
The Sixers were in the top half of the NBA in field goal percentage at 46%, and that number should inch up a little bit with less Andre Iguodala jumpers and more Brand everything as he has a career 50.5% from the floor and nudged it up to 52.7% and 53.3% during his previous two full seasons.
This move should directly benefit the play of Samuel Dalembert and Thaddeus Young the most. They both should play off Brand extremely well up front, and this gives them a frontline that can truly compete with anyone because of their length and the varieties of ways in which they can score.
They now, of course, need to find a spot up 3-point shooter, which they could have found in the draft in lieu of Marresse Speights had they known they would land Brand (yet another reason why the draft should come after free agency as it does in the NFL). But I believe Speights was an absolute steal at 16, and while I see some major differences in terms of size and athleticism, the Florida product is often compared to Brand and will be his understudy should they choose not to trade him.
I don?t care as much about comparing Conferences, but now that Brand is in Philadelphia and Michael Beasley is in Miami, there is a healthy balance of big men out East.
Grade for Philadelphia: A
Brand?s departure from the Clippers is surprising but certainly not shocking. If he had gone back to the Clippers for $20 million less than what another team offered that would have been the real story.
But the Clippers were prepared to ditch players the same way the Sixers shed themselves of Calvin Booth, Rodney Carney, and a future first round pick (Grade for Minnesota: A+, their second consecutive good trade and probably the best in their history) to clear more cap dollars for Brand. The difference between what the final offers would have been is negligible and amounts to what he?ll probably end up essentially spending on moving expenses.
Clearly, Brand wanted to play on the East Coast, play in the Eastern Conference, and for the Sixers. This is clearly not a situation where a player reluctantly bolts for a situation he doesn?t love for a few more dollars.
Baron Davis can?t be thrilled about arriving to a Clippers which that doesn?t have Brand, but there is no way they agree to a $65 million deal knowing Brand could realistically leave.
Brand didn?t back out of an agreement, but he did back out of an understanding. It was common knowledge that the Sixers would make a run at Brand, so why wasn't there more transparency on his part during this process?
Grade for Brand: C
The Clippers will put a makeshift team on the floor next season that really doesn?t suit anyone?s style; not Baron?s, not Dunleavy?s, not Kaman?s. Brand was the key, and although they could and will be active with their cap space, anything they do will be a quick fix Band-Aid.
Grade for Clippers: C-