Elton Brand Returning (Again), Sixers Shopping Bigs

[Andrew]

Sources: Elton Brand to return to 76ers

It would seem he enjoyed his role as a mentor last year, and he ended up playing 17 games as well. That said, it seems that there'll be one less big man on the roster for him to mentor by the end of the season:

The Sixers have had periodic trade talks this summer involving Noel and Okafor and plan eventually to move one of them, league sources said. Philadelphia doesn’t believe the two players’ talents are complementary.

Who do you think they'll keep? My guess is Noel; if that's the case, might as well throw this out there.

[mp3]

Iam glad for Brand returning in a positive role for the Sixers as we all know he was pretty much a FA when he signed in his prime for Philly but he has a way (again) to help the team.

I agree Noel stays over Okafor, to me he's the next Eddy Curry which got me a lot of hate before the draft that saw the Sixers draft him.

Poor defender average rebounder and is pretty much just a back to the basket player

[Andrew]

He has potential though, so I'll probably still take him over Robin Lopez.

[mp3]

True, with RoLo you know what your going to get which is solid defence while Okafor could become really engaged on his weaknesses but I said that about Eddy Curry when the knicks traded for him from your dear Bulls

[benji]

Another problem is how their talents compliment Embiid.

If Okafor works alongside Embiid, then Noel's value changes.

Personally, I'd go another season with the two, especially with Embiid back, before deciding unless a team makes a nice scorer offer. Brown started to figure out how to stagger them AND use them together better last season before Okafor shut down for the year. They're both way too young still.

[benji]

Just for fun, to compare to the Baby Bulls, even with Okafor's offensive stats getting jacked by the Sixers historic terribleness.

Per 36 at Age 20:
Okafor: 21.0/8.4 - 17.1 PER - -4.1 BPM - -0.8 VORP
Curry: 19.5/8.1 - 17.5 PER - -3.0 BPM - -0.4 VORP
Curry at 21: 17.9/7.5 - 14.8 PER - -3.3 BPM - -0.7 VORP

Per 36 at Age 21:
Noel: 13.7/9.9/2.2 2.2/1.8 - 16.2 PER - +3.4 DBPM - 1.3 VORP
Chandler: 9.8/12.4/1.1 0.8/2.0 - 14.2 PER - +1.7 DBPM - 0.0 VORP

Because Chandler was injured and only played 35 games...
Chandler at 20: 13.6/10.1/1.5 0.7/2.1 - 15.8 PER - +1.2 DBPM - 0.8 VORP
Chandler at 22: 10.5/12.7/1.1 1.1/2.3 - 16.4 PER - +4.9 DBPM - 2.8 VORP

[benji]

I always thought the Bulls should have benched Curry rather than Chandler. Chandler would improve the starters defense and wouldn't be called on to score as much with Hinrich/Deng/Nocioni/etc. especially as he evolved his game into the high efficiency he would...then Curry could come in and abuse the other teams backups, especially since few teams would have the bigs to match his size, without having to worry as much about being a rebounder or a defender or a passer. Especially with him and Gordon pairing up to do so.

And Chandler was easily better than Antonio Davis ffs.

[Andrew]

Seems Brand is calling it a career after all.

Elton Brand retired from the NBA on Thursday. The two-time All-Star and 1999-00 co-Rookie of the Year was set to begin his 18th season as a pro with the Philadelphia 76ers this fall when he apparently decided that enough was enough. He will end his career with averages of 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists.

[air gordon]

Keep them all.

Baby bulls eh? At least Tyson did turn out to be a key contributor on a championship team