Recognition for Stefansky

[corwin]

So far it looks to me that Ed is batting close to 1.000. Look at his moves.

Traded Korver which gave the team additional cap space & allowed Thad Young to get on the court.
Resisted trading Miller for pennies on the dollar & yet didn't extend him early.
Gave Cheeks a well earned one year extension that will allow him to change coaches in the future if things don't work out.
Resisted trading for Zach Randolph as rumored.
Retained DiLeo &the assistant coaches.
Traded Carney & the Utah #1 to get the cap space to sign his primary target in Brand.
Re-signed Lou Williams to a fair/reasonable contract. He also didn't leak figures or use the press in settling his contract.
Has been accessible & truthful to the public.
Drafted Mareese Speights.
Signed Royal Ivey, a solid back-up for the vet's minimum.
Signed Kareem Rush, a solid back-up & shooter for the vet's minimum.
Has engaged in the AI2 contract discussions without leaking to the press. Signing or trading Iguodala & a backup center (easy enough to do) are the two final orders of business. If AI2 is signed for reasonable money, Ed deserves the grade of A+. If he overpays him, I'd still give him an A for the rest of his work. It's nice to see the organization in good hands.

[76ersxMVP]

Yea he is great. Now if he can only bring The Answer back home next year...

[The Guilty Party]

Stefansky is good.... Stefanski is even better.

Seriously though... I'm really impressed by him right now.

[corwin]

Yea he is great. Now if he can only bring The Answer back home next year...

With or without Miller, Philly will have MLE money next year. Ai will have to sign for that if he wants to finish out his run in Philly.

[tk76]

Don't forget, he also picked just the right time to get out of the mortgage business.

The man might just have my dream job. I even naively think that with a team of TGP, Skates and Dbodner I could make the jump- but not do nearly the job DiLeo and Ed have done this summer. I'd probably be more of the BK out thinhking myself type...

[geiger]

He has a plan and he seems to be sticking to it. Obviously, everyone looks great on paper, before the play starts. If God forbid Brand gets re-injured and is out for the year and Carney turns into a passable player and so does the pick we gave up, I can see it now - "only a total idiot would give away one of the best shooters in the game, a talented first round pick who was finally showing something, and a first rounder in a deep draft for an over the hill Brand with half a leg, blah, blah; and giving Lou Williams, a Willie Green clone, a ridiculous contract like that. Worse than Billy King with Webber where we at least only gave up overpaid bums, and signing Green, who only got $3.5 million a year. And taking Speights over Blah Blah, what a moron - we could have had an all-star and we got an overweight bum with no heart. At least Billy drafted well."

But yeah, his moves have all looked really good and all were well thought out. I'm very happy with

[jmon]

One of the things that made me like Ed a little bit was that apparently he isn't an NBA guy at all. He has no real connections. He built them all himself. Add in his demeanor and he just doesn't seem like a guy who swindled his way up the rungs. He seems like one of those guys who just knows the hell out of the game and worked his *** off and just earned it.

It is rare that a guy from outside the NBA circle gets a GM job. Normally a guy will do it terribly for 5 years, get fired, and someone else will just hire him again. It is just a circle.

[geiger]

Really bright, hard working, affable guy and a local Philly kid to boot.

[tk76]

I believe CP3's 4 year max extension starts in '09, so he will be a UFA when Brand and Lou's contracts expire. Ed is so smart he is already laying the groundwork for adding Paul, and having Speights ready to step in for Brand. The man is a visionary genius that comes around just once a generation- if that.

Well, maybe he's not as great as that, and isn't yet planning the Sixers dynastic transition in 2013, but he's had a good summer...

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Yeah he's made some excellent moves thus far. I couldn't be happier... Well I could be if we could get Iverson back.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Ed's made alot of good moves thus far. Alot of them simple, but Billy King failed utterly hard at making the simple moves. It's the hard moves where Ed Stefanski's real potential will be evaulated. IE: Iguodala situation.

[LongLiveHinkie]

Elton Brand is way harder than any possible facet of the Iguodala situation. For one, getting Brand started all the way back in the season with the trading of Korver, plus the trading of Carney, Booth, and the pick we got for Korver. Plus having the ability to lure Brand away during contract talks.

Ed Stefanski got his masters degree before he got his bachelors degree. He passed the absolute hardest test first.

[Stanford]

We have to thank BK for at least giving Ed a chance to do what he's done. But BK wouldnt have had the balls to trade Korver and Carney. Two real astute moves from the guy.

[Loose Cannon]

Ed Stefanski for president.

[bedjaw]

Staying slightly from the topic--but Ed was involved in some of this. The final tally from the AI trade is in and here are the results.

Sixers Get Sixers Give
Miller AI2
Brand CWebb
JSmith Booth
1st Rd Pick Korver
1st Rd Pick
Carney
Ollie
Shav
Admundsun
Herb Hill

I include all the cuts (or decision not to resign) Ed made for that allowed us to grow cap space.....The question is would you make that deal over again. Absolutely and twice on Friday. Good job on both BK and Ed's part on the rebuild.

[is1531]

So far it looks to me that Ed is batting close to 1.000. Look at his moves.

Traded Korver which gave the team additional cap space & allowed Thad Young to get on the court.
Resisted trading Miller for pennies on the dollar & yet didn't extend him early.
Gave Cheeks a well earned one year extension that will allow him to change coaches in the future if things don't work out.
Resisted trading for Zach Randolph as rumored.
Retained DiLeo &the assistant coaches.
Traded Carney & the Utah #1 to get the cap space to sign his primary target in Brand.
Re-signed Lou Williams to a fair/reasonable contract. He also didn't leak figures or use the press in settling his contract.
Has been accessible & truthful to the public.
Drafted Mareese Speights.
Signed Royal Ivey, a solid back-up for the vet's minimum.
Signed Kareem Rush, a solid back-up & shooter for the vet's minimum.
Has engaged in the AI2 contract discussions without leaking to the press. Signing or trading Iguodala & a backup center (easy enough to do) are the two final orders of business. If AI2 is signed for reasonable money, Ed deserves the grade of A+. If he overpays him, I'd still give him an A for the rest of his work. It's nice to see the organization in good hands.

I think Ed has done a very nice job so far. If he overpays for Iggy ( 6years at 72milion) then it puts a dent on the job Ed is doing. The biggest problem here is, how can we trade Iggy and get equal value? I would not accept Ben Gordon for him, even with a ist round pick next year. Memphis and Indiana are not going to give up Rudy Gay or Danny Granger. Iggy turned down 57 last year, but I think he has Ed in a strangle hold, which will allow Iggy to come out with no less than 66m for 6 years.

Iggy may be the king of the airball, but the 76ers will not be successful without Iggy. It's only a chess game, but I doubt if Ed wins the game.

[Wilfried]

He's doing a great job, but he had a lot of tools (cap space) to work with. Nevertheless, the signing off Brand is a great +.

Outside of that, we have to wait.

Giving up Korver, Carney, a first rounder and a lot of cash isn't like getting Gasol for Kwame Brown and Crittenton. Elton Brand didn't came for nothing!

Besides that, drafting Speights was obvious the best player he could draft.

Ivey and Rush are just 2 veterans who won't do much.

Now we have to wait what $$$ Iguodala and Lou-Will are receiving. After that, we can judge Ed.

We also have to realize, he's doing everything this summer. We're stuck with this team for the next 3-4 years (besides maybe a new pg and some bench warmers/late first rounders).

[corwin]

We also have to realize, he's doing everything this summer. We're stuck with this team for the next 3-4 years (besides maybe a new pg and some bench warmers/late first rounders).

I see your point but I don't think I'd use the word "stuck" to describe what has been put together. The East is so weak that this team could be in contention for the conference finals for the next 5 years. Of course this depends on Brand remaining healthy & Lou Williams & T Young continuing to improve. There is depth & a nice blend of developing young players & solid veterans. The team should need no more than tinkering.

[Dedicated_76ers_fan]

Lou was signed for 5 M on the dot, the impressive thing is 5 years! A Nice lockup for a 21 yr old.
Your thinking too small, I still want Charlotte's Jason Richardson.

[steveb21]

I agree with most everything in this thread but you can't judge Ed solely on one off season alone. You know what they say...Rome wasn't built in a day.

We're off to a good start. He's laying a solid foundation and put Philly back on the basketball map. We're considered an up-and-coming team which makes us appealing to free agents and it also makes us a viable destination for players via trade. The big test will come when we try to make that move from good team to contending team. Only then can you say that Ed's had a successful campaign.

His most difficult decision is coming next year with Andre Miller. So far he's been this team's MVP. As he goes so the Sixers go and it won't be easy to replace him as a leader. After signing Iguodala keeping Andre Miller has got to be the next priority.

As far as Iverson coming back...I just don't see how he fits with this team. He's not coming here for the MLE and I don't want him disrupting the chemistry that this current squad is building. Let him play out his days in Denver and I'll cheer for him again when we hang #3 in the rafters.