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• Selected Marreese Speights 16th overall.

Marreese Speights is a very solid pick for Philadelphia at 16, as he has a great deal of potential and fills a hole at the 4-spot. However, there may have been a better player at the same position on the board. Who, you ask? The same player that virtually everybody else passed on, Darrell Arthur. His fit with an up-tempo team like Philly is tremendous, and many outsiders believed that he was the guy at 16 if he was available.

Regardless, Speights can be a player. Questions have been raised regarding his hunger to become a good player, he’s got all the physical tools. Let’s hope he has the mental tools to go with it.

Grade: B

Jonathan Givoney of DraftExpress.com reports that Ed Stefanski and the gang have been active in trade discussions.

One team that is apparently looking to move up in this draft is Philadelphia, thanks to the plethora of cap space they will enjoy coming July 1st. The Sixers are reportedly realizing that there could be very few quality unrestricted free agents available that they could realistically sign, making their precious cap space essentially useless.

One trade that is making the rounds would involve the Knicks sending Zach Randolph and the rights to the #6 pick to Philadelphia for a smaller contract, such as Reggie Evans, and the rights to the #16 pick—after July 1st (when Philadelphia’s cap space kicks in). New York would move into position to have significant cap space in the summer of 2010 (possibly to make a run at LeBron James) by unloading the 17.3 million dollars owed to Randolph in 2010/11, and would still be able to keep David Lee around.

Philadelphia would fill a big void at power forward with a 20 point per game scorer in Zach Randolph, and possibly pick up one of Jerryd Bayless, O.J. Mayo or Eric Gordon in the process, while only sacrificing the 8-9 million dollars they are expected to have in cap space, which likely wouldn’t get them very far anyway.

That is extremely interesting, but Stefanski needs to sit back and ask himself: is it really worth it? Zach Randolph brings more than just a little baggage, both on and off the court, and certainly is not a player that is going to adjust to a high-tempo system like the 76ers currently have constituted.

That sixth overall pick, however, is certainly an appeasing asset. While you could suggest that Randolph is not worth Philadelphia’s time of day, you could just as easily state that a high pick in this year’s top-heavy draft is something to look at.

With that said, there is a reason Donnie Walsh is willing to part ways with the pick just to build up enough opposing interest to move Randolph.

Givoney makes a terrific point in saying that Philadelphia may only truly be able to enjoy their cap room via trade, as opposed to hitting a home run in the free agent market. Even so, there’s got to be more formidable options out there than Zach Randolph… right?

Time will tell. These next 18 and a half days of pre-draft mode will be very interesting.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

Phil Jasner of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that Sixers General Manager Ed Stefanski and company have are in no rush to extend the contract of veteran point guard Andre Miller.

Despite what you might have read elsewhere, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to rush into discussions about an extension for Andre Miller. As excellent as Miller was, emerging as the team’s MVP, he’s 32 and has a year remaining on his contract. There’s no reason to believe Miller’s skills will drop off as he approaches 33, but they say that when it happens, it can sometimes happen fast.

For now, Miller represents an expiring $10 million contract at the end of next season, and - depending on circumstances - a huge chip at the next trade deadline. On the other hand, if he gets off to a start that rivals the level of this season, I wouldn’t be surprised by an in-season extension.

Miller put together one of his better seasons this past year with the 76ers. The nine-year NBA veteran dished 6.9 assists and grabbed four rebounds per contest, but also managed to set career highs this late in his career. “Dre” averaged a career-best 17.0 points per game at the most efficient clip of his career (49.2%). That’s impressive in its own right, but even more comforting when realizing that he even took the most shots per game of his career (14.1). Finally, Miller also set his lowest turnover-per-game number (2.5) since his rookie year in 1999-2000, where he turned the ball over 2.0 times in just over 25 minutes per game.

The numbers are beautiful, but they don’t tell the whole story. Miller was the catalyst to Philadelphia’s up-tempo attack throughout the second half of the 2007-2008 season, and without him, it’s tough to imagine that they’d have ever made such rapid improvements… let alone make the playoffs.

Miller’s $10 million expiring salary may very well be used as mid-season trade bait, as Jasner states in the cited article above, but if Miller and his agent aren’t too greedy, it may be wise to keep him around.

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Posted By: Dustin Chapman

Andre Miller had 29 points and Joe Smith added 26 points for the rebuilding 76ers, who finished 35-47.

Luke Jackson had a career-high 30 points for the Raptors, who failed to set a franchise record for wins in a season. Toronto (47-35) unfurled its Atlantic Division championship banner from the rafters of the Air Canada Centre before the game.