I liked Ed Stefanski at first. I really did. I liked that he was honest. And then at some point, he got GM disease and started feeding us bullshit. He did everything right last offseason, even if it didn't work out. I'm not going to blame him for Elton Brand getting injured. But this offseason, he doesn't have any obvious choices. Here's my list of DOs and DON'Ts for Ed this offseason (with the DON'Ts first, because the DOs make more sense after them):
DON'T:
-Resign Andre Miller. For the love of God, do not resign Andre Miller. An aging PG who can't play defense, can't shoot the 3, and can't run the pick and roll is about as wrong as it gets for this team. If Andre Miller is re-signed, I may hafta boycott the Sixers next year. That would be dedicating yourself to mediocrity.
-Acquire any big men for more than the minimum. We already have 5 slated for next year. We don't need anything more than maybe a backup big guy to bang in practice.
-Trade away Iggy, Thad, Brand, or Speights. That's our starting 2-5 for the foreseeable future. Don't break it up. It will work. There's enough mid-range shooting there to keep teams at least semi-honest.
DO (attempt to):
-Trade Dalembert or Evans. There's not enough minutes for 5, and these two are neither young nor starting material. I don't really care what we get.
-Acquire a second first round pick. There should be teams looking to sell picks. As long as we don't resign Miller, we'll be slightly below even the hard cap. We have enough cap room to take on a mid first, a first in the 20s, a second round pick, a full MLE and still have another 2ish mil under the luxtax.
-Draft a PG in the first round. If we only have one pick, which will likely be the case, get a PG. This is a PG-rich class. Whether it's Lawson, Curry, Maynor, or somebody else, draft one.
-Draft a 3-point shooting SF. Whether it's a first rounder or a second rounder, we need somebody who can come in for Thad/Iggy and hit the 3 with the second unit. There's a bunch of Euros who fit this bill in the 2nd round.
-Sign a PG with the MLE. Self-explanatory.
-Trade for a PG should the previous bullet fail to pan out. Self-explanatory.
And things I'm ambivalent about:
-Tony Dileo. I actually think he's a pretty good coach and that the bad defense is often due to young/inexperienced/terrible personnel than anything else. If they can get a really good coach, go for it. But it's not make or break as far as I'm concerned.
-Lou Williams and Jason Smith. I don't think either should be actively shopped, but I'd at least listen to offers.
