Sixers' chairman Ed Snider made it clear that GM Billy King and head coach Maurice Cheeks are very much in charge of the building program, and that he would not necessarily judge success this season based on wins and losses.

King and Cheeks are each in the final season of a contract.

Asked about King, Snider said, "He's the man."

"Look, when Larry Brown was the coach, Larry and Billy worked as a team," Snider said. "I wasn't in every meeting and every discussion, but Larry coached and Billy put the team together in accordance with their best estimates.

"Billy wasn't sitting there twiddling his thumbs all that time. We went to the Finals with them [in 2000-01] and lost, then tried to get to the next level by trying to get that second scorer [to go with Allen Iverson]. We tried and tried."