Elton Brand will bring his brand of basketball to Philadelphia

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In a blockbuster deal, the Philadelphia 76er’s signed Elton Brand to a 5 year 82 million dollar contract.

Wow!

The 76er’s were eliminated by the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs last year and had no inside presence what so ever. They wanted a big man desperately, but big men are hard to come by.

Philadelphia went all out.

Philadelphia wanted to land a big man this summer and had Hawks restricted free agent forward Josh Smith in town last week for a visit, but he left without being presented with an offer sheet. Smith will look elsewhere, or possibly stay in Atlanta.

The 76ers entered the summer $11 million under the salary cap, but even that wasn’t enough to land a franchise-shifting free agent like Brand. Philadelphia was able to swing a deal with Minnesota that sent forward Rodney Carney and a future No. 1 pick to the Timberwolves as part of a trade that cleared an additional $2 million in salary cap space.

The trade allowed the Sixers to offer a starting salary in the $14-million range. Brand had $16.4 million left on deal he signed in 2003.

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It will make a difference. Check out this lineup…

Brand joins a Sixers team that is no longer the lottery-bound loser it was a year ago. Andre Miller, Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert and the blossoming Thaddeus Young turned the 76ers into a surprise playoff team, even stretching Detroit to six games in a first-round series. Philadelphia coach Maurice Cheeks had his team playing hard every game and he earned an extension from Stefanski.

The Sixers got only 5.2 points out of last season’s power forward, Reggie Evans.

“I feel even stronger and tougher once I’ve got Elton Brand behind me,” Stefanski said. “I’d have to say, yes, we have closed the gap.”

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