IMO it will hurt Philly's chances of making the playoffs more if Webber remained with the team. Webber is either done or he was deliberately dogging it with the Sixers. You'd think he'd still be a contributing player, but he just isn't competing effectively. I can't think of a good team that would think they'd be better of with Webber on their team!
Frankly, I'm not too worried about them making the playoffs this year. The only decent first round pick they have is their own, and that's more important for the future than an early playoff out this season.
Philly is clearing up a lot of cap space very quickly, which makes them a potential player in the free agent market. They are now 2 players under the roster limit with CWebb gone.
With Brown back with the Sixers, you just know that they have all types of different ideas and scenarios to try and figure out how to get the franchise back on track. Brown is crazy and very volatile- changing his mind on players very quickly. It's not clear if the team of Cheeks, King and Brown will be effective, or how quickly they'll be able to bring results, but it is clear that they've cleaned the deck and are stageing for a rebuilding process.
The problem now is they have to wait to see which pick they get to decide who they should really pursue in free agency.
When your basketball team sucks, change is good, but is it really a change? The only thing different is that Iverson is gone.
IMO, the Sixers failed to build a team that AI could get to the championship. Getting rid of him, was saying that they didn't think they could win with him, or at least not in a time frame that suited AI. No matter how they spin it, they failed to finish what they started when they got to the finals the first time. Everyone involved with the Sixers now was there with AI back then. Once that original team started getting old, they couldn't find other players who could step in and contribute at the same level.
Not only didn't the Sixers get back, but they regressed, even as AI was becoming a better player. So far that's King's legacy- every success he had was with AI here, and everything since has been a decision made by Billy and/or Larry. Maybe they will do better without having to try to find a way to deal with a unique talent like AI.
