Derek Bodner’s Blog

Earlier this week I got the chance to interview Sixers President and General Manager Ed Stefanski for RealGM. As I’m sitting here after the fact, there are definitely some questions I wish I had asked. There were some I wanted to ask, but chickened out on (thoughts on Gilbert Arenas’s comments about Iguodala he made on his blog, and whether extracurricular stuff like that would effect his interest in a free agent, for example), stuff I wanted to ask and forgot (His views on restricted free agency, whether or not he feels it’s a fair compromise with regards to players/interested teams getting their interest stifled because they’re afraid of tying up their cap space for 2 weeks. Whether he felt the team could compete for a title with Andre Iguodala as his best offensive player. Whether Andre Iguodala’s apparent body language had an effect in the clubhouse. How important it is to have stability in the coaching staff, particularly with young players. etc).

Overall though, it was definite a positive experience, and I think there were some interesting tidbits. Particularly about the details of the Korver pick (which I didn’t see the protection explained in detail by any Philadelphia writer), his views on the drafting process, and whether or not he felt comfortable with the cap space he had. In fact, that was the one part of the interview that really surprised me.

I’d really like to thank Ed for taking the time to sit down with me. We were scheduled to have a 5-10 minute chat, but it ended up lasting well over 20 minutes. He was a pleasure to talk to.

The article about the interview can be found here:
sixers.realgm.com.

Article:
The upcoming 2008 free agency period will be one that could alter the course the 76ers franchise is on. This is a free agency period that the team has been gearing towards for over 12 months already, beginning with the trade of Allen Iverson for a package that included Joe Smith’s expiring contract, and most recently culminating with the trading of
Kyle Korver to give the Sixers even more flexibility.

I recently had the chance to have a lengthy chat with Sixers’ President and General Manager Ed Stefanski. We were originally slated to talk for about 10 minutes, however the conversation ended up lasting well longer. My main goal was to get a glimpse of his thought process as he prepares the team for the future, and maybe get a little bit of an idea of how the new Sixers head honcho operates.

Despite shrinking attendance and a recent seven game losing streak, Stefanski claims that there is no pressure from management for a quick fix. “There’s no pressure from management or ownership. Ownership wants us to get this right and to build something special,” he said. “We’re out there competing, the players have played hard, they’ve brought energy. So we are competing, we are going to win some games, but we have to get the players to go forward.”

The top priority is clear, and has been for some time. The Sixers need a post presence, and if one became available it would be their top priority. When asked the skill-set this team is currently lacking, Stefanski took no time to reply that “everyone would like to go inside out, first establish the inside, hopefully get an easier bucket inside, then if you could demand a double team then it’s going to open the perimeter up and make people have to rotate.

“But we’re not the only team in the NBA looking for this”, Stefanski quickly pointed out. Indeed, obtaining a Power Forward who can demand a double-team is not going to be an easy task, cap space or not.

But should Sixers fans expect a player in free agency who can turn the team around instantly, someone Stefanski can build the team around?

“I don’t know if you’d say you can build your team around, that would be hard,” Stefanski said. “I think [someone] who can complement Sammy is real important.”

Because of the Sixers necessity to be players in the free agency market this upcoming offseason, Andre Miller’s name has come up virtually since the day he donned a 76ers uniform as someone who could be moved to gain flexibility. Even after the Korver trade, the rumors have persisted. Stefanski was quick to point out that while the Sixers will listen to any offers, they are not actively shopping Andre Miller, either.

But is $10 million enough? The Sixers should be somewhere in that range once the salary cap space is set come July, and while that is more than any other team is currently projected to have to work with, the majority of the big name free agents in the coming year are either restricted free agents or players with player options for next year. Is $10 million enough to pull an impact restricted free agent away from their current team?

When asked whether the team was looking to clear more cap cap space for next summer, possibly to have enough room to offer a maximum salaried contract offer, Stefanski said “Right now I’d have to say we’re pretty comfortable at that number. If we got a lot more, I’m not sure we’d really do anything different with it.”

One thing is clear, Ed Stefanski expects Thaddeus Young to be a key member of the team in the future.

“I think Thaddeus Young has potential, at 19 years old, to be a starter in this league down the road here, hopefully quickly,” Stefanski said about the Sixers rookie. He said he had the chance to interview Young while he was interviewing for the Nets pick at 17 last year, and he was blown away. “We were really, really impressed with Thaddeus Young’s interview, for an 18 year old kid, how mature he was, how committed he was, and you could tell he was a very good kid. And he has an edge to himself when he gets on the court. That kid was one of the best interviews we’ve ever had.”

While Young has been playing some time at both forward positions, Stefanski feels he’s more of a small forward. “His natural position will most likely be a 3 spot,” Stefanski said. “But I think coach just tried his best to get him on the court. And, I’ll say that in the beginning, Mo was trying to get him on the court, but he has gotten him on the court and he deserves the minutes he’s getting. He’s proven what he can do on the court. It’s not like Mo’s just playing him for the sake of playing him, this kid deserves those minutes.”

Jason Smith is also in the team’s future plans. “I think he’s shown he’s a definite NBA player, what I would call a definite rotation guy, top 8,” the Sixers president said. “Now, with his work ethic and his attitude, will he become a starter? That’s up to him. But I think he has opportunity and the chance to.”

The guy who had changed Stefanski’s opinion the most since he joined the team, however, appears to be center Samuel Dalembert. “From afar, I knew Sammy could block shots and rebound the ball, but he’s done much more than I expected coming in here. I mean the guy has gotten 20 rebounds two games in a row so from that standpoint Sammy has been better than I even thought he was.”

I had the chance to ask Stefanski about some of the staff, and he did mention that he would be evaluating the entire staff at the end of the season. That being said, he did give praise to the Sixers entire coaching staff.

“I gotta give the coaches some credit here, because Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith as rookies don’t step on the floor and contribute right away unless the coaches have worked hard with them, and we’re seeing their work come to fruition,” Stefanski said. “The same as all the hard work they’ve put in with Louis Williams.”

While the staff will be evaluated at the end of the season, Tony DiLeo’s past draft performances appear to have earned him high marks. “Tony has done a real nice job as you look at second round picks here with contributors of Willie Green, of Louis Williams, of a Kyle Korver who we then turn around and traded for assets. I would say, from that standpoint, you have to give Tony and his staff, and Billy, a lot of credit.”

One piece of information I did want to get clarified during the interview was the protections on the Kyle Korver trade. The pick has widely been reported as being needed to be conveyed between 2009 and 2014, with decreasing levels of protection. Ed didn’t have the exact specifics of the protection in front of him, but he said he believes the pick is top 22 protected in 2009. If either the Jazz pick or the Knicks pick (the Jazz are owed a NY first round pick, which must be conveyed by 2010 at the latest) are outside of the top 22, the pick can be conveyed to the Sixers in 2009. In 2010, the protection drops to top 15 protected, and remains lottery protected for the duration. If the conditions are not met after the seven years, the Sixers receive cash instead of the pick.

While the moves of the past 12 months have primarily been to put the Sixers in a better cap situation, the draft is very much a key for this team. Outside of the Pistons, who seem to be the exception rather than the rule, you would be hard pressed to find a champion in the last 25 years who did not have an All-League caliber player they drafted and developed themselves. So how does Ed evaluate potential draftees come draft time?

“I am not huge on these drills of 2 on 2, 1 on 1, I don’t put as much credence on that. Do I like to see the kid on our gym? Yeah I’d love to see him, but if he doesn’t come to the gym I’m not going to die over it if we’ve done our homework all year,” he said. “It’s just, to me, another piece to the puzzle to picking the kid. I think the interviews are very important, the background checks as well. I do like personally to sit with the guy, talk to him, and get a feel for him.”

If the best player on the board come draft time next year is a wing player, one should not expect the Sixers to reach on a big man just to fill a need. “What we have done in the past, when I’ve been with Rod, we’ve always drafted the best player available,” Stefanski said. “With the makeup of our team and looking at our depth chart, I’d say we’re in a situation where depth is going to be important, but we need depth at a lot of positions. So I don’t think it’s going to matter what position
this guy plays.”

A humorous moment came towards the end of the interview, when Ed was asked whether, when he was growing up as a kid, if he dreamed about being drafted by the Sixers or having a chance to run the Sixers, both accomplishments Ed Stefanski can now claim. “Well, I never dreamed about playing. I mean, you could dream about playing, but I wasn’t any good. There were 10 rounds in the draft back then, we have 2 now. In the 10th round they were just drafting people they liked and local kids. I was drafted only because I was a local kid playing in the Big 5. That was the only reason, they had no desire to bring me to camp, and I had no delusions that I was an NBA basketball player.”

Perhaps. However, for a kid who wasn’t any good, Ed Stefanski sure has had a successful basketball career up to this point. The next few months will be a pivotal one and a turning point of this storied franchise. Hopefully Ed can continue building on the success he has had up to this point.