59 Games, 6 Months To Prepare For Draft

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">ALLEN IVERSON had one wish heading into this holiday season.

Trade me. Now!

So after 12 days full of rumors and speculation, Sixers president Billy King finally granted the disgruntled guard his wish, trading the face of the franchise to the Denver Nuggets yesterday afternoon.

In exchange, the Sixers, who also sent forward Ivan McFarlin to the Nuggets, will get point guard Andre Miller, 12-year veteran Joe Smith and, more importantly, two first-round draft picks in the 2007 NBA draft.

"[Allen] did ask to be traded and we did honor and acknowledge that," King said during a press conference at the Wachovia Center. "Once that was done, we decided to work as hard as possible to do what was best for this franchise in the long haul."

King said the main basis behind the trade was to gain some cap flexibility and bring in players who could help turn around a Sixers team riding an 11-game losing streak. But neither player should be enough to cost this team its lottery pick, the first of three selections it will make next June. Only Memphis (5-19) has a worse record.

Ultimately, it's the draft picks that make this deal so enticing. This summer's draft has already been hyped to be one of the deepest and most talented in the last 10 years, which should give Sixer fans a good sense of hope. The two picks the Sixers acquired, which belong to Dallas and Denver, will likely be somewhere in the back end of the first round.

"I think the draft picks are very important because we want to build through the draft," King said. "This team was built around Allen and he helped carry us for a long time. I just think now we need to step back and evaluate with different players and personnel. Now, with the draft picks and cap flexibility, it will really give us a good chance to rebuild once again."

With the Sixers working in their two new players while allowing more time for young players such as Willie Green and Samuel Dalembert to continue to develop, the next 2 to 3 months almost can be considered another training camp. Winning will remain a difficult task for the Sixers, who hit the road for eight of their next 10 games, including a seven-game West Coast road trip that will swing through Denver on Jan. 2. Care to guess how many shots he'll take that night?

"Now with this distraction off the table," King said, "we can get Andre and Joe out on the floor and continue to play hard like we have and hopefully get some wins in here."

King said he was hopeful that Miller and Smith would be ready to go by tonight's game against Indiana. But both still have to pass physicals, and the Denver area was bracing for a major snowstorm that was forecast to move in this morning and continue into tomorrow. King said a debut at Boston on Friday (or against the Knicks at home Saturday) might be more logical if things can't get done in time before tonight's tipoff.

While King says he doesn't foresee any more deals occurring before the Feb. 22 trading deadline, he advises fans to be patient as they begin what could be a long drawn-out phase of rebuilding. Only Minnesota's Kevin Garnett had been with his team longer than Iverson had been with the Sixers.

"When you take a great player like that off any team, that's definitely a big loss," he said. "So I'm not going to sit here and discredit what Allen has done for this organization, but it's time for both sides to move on."</div>

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