There aren’t too many things that Philadelphia and Memphis share in common.

One city is best known for its historical grandeur, fine restaurants and rabid sports fans, while the other can only boast Elvis and BBQ.  But, Philly and Memphis do share one very unique thing in common.  The City of Brotherly Love and the Barbecue Pork Capital of the World have both had its professional basketball teams’ bamboozled by Lakers’ general manager Mitch Kupchak in deals that allowed the Lakers to acquire two of the most dominant big men in the NBA – Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard.

Yes, long before Kupchak alienated not one, but two coaches in Lakerland (including arguably the best coach in professional basketball history), he suckered our beloved Sixers franchise which was starved to leave the world of the irrelevant (that was nestled in a direction of going nowhere fast) to take on Andrew Bynum and his bum knee, scratch that,  two bum knees.

The 76ers were supposed to receive a Bynum with plenty of superstar potential whose knee simply needed some rest.  Once the knee was stable and now that he was out from under the Kobe dominated Lakers; he would ultimately come into his own as a perennial all-star.

At least, that’s what Bynum was supposed to be.

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As fellow Philadunkia writer Steve Toll will tell you, the 4 year, $41 million extension given to Jrue Holiday was met with mixed feelings from fans of the 76ers.  First, let’s agree that $41 million is certainly a lot of money to guarantee a player that has only one season under his belt with a PER higher than the league average of 15. 

However, because Jrue is in the middle of his fourth NBA season, it is often overlooked that he is still just 22 years old, meaning jumps in both productivity and efficiency are not only possible, they are likely.  Combine this with the fact that at least a dozen teams will have enough cap space to add a max contract this off-season, and it’s safe to say that Jrue would’ve gotten a larger offer as a restricted free agent than he signed with the 76ers. 

Thus, if the team had let Jrue enter restricted free agency, which some argue they should have, they would have two options: Let him walk to another team, or pay him at a higher level than they locked him up for now.

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After an off-season which saw the 76ers being more proactive than most would of predicted, there are several things to look forward to moving into the 2012-13 season.  The acquisition of Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson made headlines and will have a huge impact on this team.  The signing of Nick Young and trading for Dorrel Wright certainly strengthened the core of this roster.  Still, arguably the most pleasantly surprising addition to our Philadelphia franchise this past summer may be the pick-up of the undrafted Maalik Wayns. 

At first glance it’s easy to write Wayns off as just another roster addition.  There is no reason to even humor the thought of Jrue Holiday not ending this season the same way he starts, as the featured point guard of this franchise.  In fact unless a series of unfortunate injuries and circumstances arise, one wouldn’t be expecting Maalik Wayns to be given significant minutes coming off the bench.  Still, the undrafted guard out of Nova has shown that his path to an NBA roster will not be denied and if nurtured properly Wayns could be a help to the 7-6 this season.

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With only 40 days left until the 2012-13 Sixers season gets underway there is plenty of news to talk about.

• Sixers announce that senior vice president of basketball operations Tony DiLeo has now become the teams new General Manager. I like DiLeo as a person. I thought he did a pretty good job of coaching the team in the 2008-09 season, while almost upsetting the eventual Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic in the playoffs that year. I think the Sixers keeping the position in house isn’t necessarily a bad thing. DiLeo has proved to be a valuable asset in changing the culture of the Sixers around in the past 5 years. It also gives coach Collins some more say in what moves are made which I feel is a good thing as well, rather than the debacles which have occurred from the likes of Billy King and Ed Stefanski over the years.
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