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Brand ready to trade coasts?

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports

In an improbable turn, Elton Brand is leaning toward accepting a five-year, approximately $80 million contract with the Philadelphia 76ers, multiple league sources said Tuesday afternoon.

Brand had been expected to return to the Los Angeles Clippers after opting out of $16.4 million in the final year of his contract, especially once Golden State’s Baron Davis agreed to join him in Los Angeles. Yet, Brand waited for Philadelphia general manager Ed Stefanski to create more salary-cap space for him – which he did on Monday night by dumping two contracts on Minnesota – and sources close to 76ers management say the organization believes it is close to luring away Brand.

Multiple league executives and agents now believe Brand is destined to sign with the 76ers. Even so, Clippers officials were still working furiously to convince Brand to return to the franchise where he has enjoyed great success over the past eight seasons. They hadn’t lost hope, but are fearful he could be slipping away.

What has hurt the Clippers chances of retaining Brand has been the organization’s refusal to offer anything but a “take-it-or-leave-it” deal since Golden State made its offer. People close to Brand say that stance “pissed him off,” and made him question his original desire to stay a Clipper.

The Clippers could renounce free agents such as Shaun Livingston and Corey Maggette to sweeten what’s believed to be a five-year, $70 million offer, but have resisted upping their bid. Perhaps that could change on Tuesday with the fear of losing him to the 76ers.

Losing Brand would be a horrible blow to the Clippers, who had believed him when he said he would stay for less money should they bring a talented teammate to join him. Golden State has offered the most money – as much as $95 million – but Brand, who missed all but eight games a year ago with a knee injury, had been intrigued with returning to his Eastern roots.

Brand can officially sign a contract on Wednesday when the league’s free-agency moratorium ends.

On Monday, the Sixers traded forwards Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a future No. 1 pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves to free as much as $2 million in additional salary cap space to offer Brand. Minnesota sent Philadelphia its $2.8 million trade exception from a 2007 deal of Mark Blount to the Miami Heat.

corgiBear8 wrote:The whole thing doesn't make sense to me. I thought the Clips did want Elton wanted by signing Baron, yet he is unhappy? There seems to be a big communication problem w/ Elton or his agent and Clipper management. This whole contract thing with EB should have been worked out long ago. It would be a shame if he left the Clips, and we would probably never find out the truth behind the story.

agentzerotoTO wrote:Card-Carrying Members of Clipper Nation, as a fan of team that has lost a star player in an ugly manner, my only piece of advice to you is this:

Boo like you have never booed before. You'll find all of your anger/sadness is essentially leaving your body as you boo.

madmaxmedia wrote:What's the point in NOT renouncing Maggette or Livingston to make some room to offer Brand a better contract? Livingston is effectively a UFA right now anyway, and Corey is basically gone

jgustav1 wrote:Baylor, Dunleavy and Roeser should have been fired years ago unless they are just taking orders from Sterling for some of these FA blunders. If Brand and Maggette leaving with no compensation doesn't get these guys fired, what will?

GuyverX wrote:How Baylor has not been fired for making the Clippers into the laughing stock of the NBA about 15 years ago is beyond me. It just means Sterling doesn't give a crap.