The first week of free agency - the negotiating period began last Sunday - hasn't gone all that badly from the Sixers' perspective.

While many of the other Eastern Conference teams made moves that will make them marginally better next season, those deals will ultimately lead them to salary-cap prison. And that should leave the 76ers as one of the few teams east of the Mississippi with significant cap room next summer.

(Might as well get in the lotus position and chant your mantra for the next 52 weeks: Kevin Garnett . . . Elton Brand . . . Shawn Marion . . . Jermaine O'Neal . . . Gilbert Arenas . . .