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A Philadelphia 76ers blog, hosted by Christopher A. Vito

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Sixers coach Brett Brown on Danny Granger: 'I don't begrudge him'


(AP)

For now, Danny Granger remains with the 76ers.

A Sixers spokesman said the team is not any closer to reaching a buyout agreement on the contract of the ninth-year forward, who according to reports was less than thrilled to be traded from Eastern Conference-contending Indiana.

Saturday is the deadline by which Granger must be on a team’s roster for the 30-year-old to be eligible for that club’s playoff roster.

Granger’s desire to sever ties with the Sixers does not bother coach Brett Brown.

“It doesn’t,” Brown said. “Maybe it should, but it doesn’t.”

Brown said he and Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie have spoken with Granger, and that the team is trying to respect his Granger’s wishes. 

“He’s a good guy, a good person and a heck of a player,” Brown said. “Everybody has different ideas on what’s best for them and their family at this stage of his career. I don’t begrudge him for any of that. It’s always our job to run a business and treat people well. 

“We will do that, and I think the timeline with Danny is still open-ended. No decision has been made in any regard yet. I suspect one will happen in the not-too-distant future.”

Granger was sent to the Sixers by the Pacers at the trade deadline, in exchange for forwards Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen.

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Monday, February 24, 2014

Brett Brown: Sixers, Danny Granger "just trying to sort out what's going to be best"



Danny Granger’s status with the 76ers remains unclear, though it sounds like both sides are working toward a buyout arrangement.

For the time being, Granger is not with the team. He was not at Wells Fargo Center for Monday’s game against Milwaukee, Sixers coach Brett Brown said, and there was no locker room stall arranged for him.

“He's in the city of Philadelphia. Go find him,” Brown said. “He's got a fake wig and sunglasses on.”

Granger finished his physical Sunday, after which he met with Brown. He also sat down with Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie sometime over the weekend, Brown said.


Acquired from Indiana at the Feb. 20 trade deadline, Granger does not seem to have any interest in playing for the Sixers. If he seeks a buyout of the remainder of his contract, it’d be for roughly $4 million. Brown insists that “there’s still more going on with the discussions,” however.

“He most definitely wants to play basketball this year,” Brown said of Granger. “The obvious stuff is assessing his goals at this stage of his career. He’s a player and he wants to play. Just trying to sort out what’s going to be best for both parties has yet to be determined.”

But Granger and the Sixers are at a critical juncture: If the ninth-year forward is looking to be on a team’s playoff roster, he has to be signed by March 1. That would make Thursday or Friday of this week the cutoff for both he and the Sixers to reach an agreement on Granger parting ways.

More on this in Tuesday’s Daily Times.

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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Danny Granger has met with Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, expected to speak with coach Brett Brown Sunday

(Associated Press)


Danny Granger has completed the last installment of his physical, and 76ers coach Brett Brown said he intended to sit down with the 30-year-old forward Sunday afternoon.

Granger did not see or participate in the Sixers’ two-hour practice at PCOM. Brown said Granger was not even in the building.

“He was going through the final stages of physicals and I’m going to be meeting with him within the hour,” Brown said.

Granger, who was acquired from Indiana Thursday at the trade deadline, reportedly does not want to play for the Sixers and is said to be seeking a buyout of the remainder of his contract. The small forward is making $14 million this season.

Only Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie has spoken with Granger, Brown said, though the coach expected that to change in the 60 minutes following his team’s practice.

“Sam has met with him,” Brown said. “(Granger) has done his physicals and he’ll come back and I’ll sit down with him for the first time now that the physicals have been had and talk with him.”

The Sixers host Milwaukee Monday.

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Friday, February 21, 2014

GM Sam Hinkie on practice facility plans: 'It's going to be important ... for culture'

(AP)
Friday afternoon, Sam Hinkie spoke to reporters in a back room at PCOM, in front of a water-stained Sixers banner. Not the optimum conditions, for sure.

That being said, the 76ers' general manager offered a glimpse into what could be. He gave an update on the oft-discussed future practice facility for the Sixers, which is expected to be built on ground at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in South Philadelphia.

There’s no timetable for its groundbreaking or its completion, Hinkie said, but work is being done behind the scenes.

“I’ve spent a lot of time – none in the last 10 days – but a lot of time in the last six months traveling around, visiting a lot of facilities, NBA facilities, college facilities and the like as we try to put our plans together,” Hinkie said. “And (ours) is going to be big. I think it’s important. I will say this. One of the things (why) it’s going to be important is for culture.

“It’s a place where our players feel welcomed and safe and they’re getting the best instruction in the world and that they have a little extra incentive to get up some extra shots or a little extra incentive to – if he can do it, if Jason Richardson can do it on a Tuesday at 10 a.m. and I just came in from the D-League, maybe I can do it, too. If he’s in there working in the weight room, maybe I should get in there, too. I think that’s as important as using it as a recruiting tool, as an engine for how we live and how we work every day.”

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Thursday, February 20, 2014

Report: Sixers trade Evan Turner, Lavoy Allen to Indiana for Danny Granger


(AP)

The trade deadline had passed when the 76ers made their biggest move of the day.

The Sixers acquired small forward Danny Granger from Indiana in exchange for Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen, according to Yahoo! Sports. It was one of four trades consummated by the Sixers on what turned out to be a hectic but productive trade deadline for first-year general manager Sam Hinkie.

Here’s a quick rundown of the rest of the Sixers’ moves Thursday, though some details have yet to be ironed out:

What the 76ers got:

  • SF Danny Granger (from IND)
  • C Henry Sims and F Earl Clark (from CLV)
  • G Eric Maynor (from WSH)
  • C Byron Mullens (from LAC)
  • Two 2014 second-round picks (from CLV)
  • One 2015 second-round pick (from WSH)
  • One 2016 second-round pick (from DEN)


What the 76ers gave up:

  • C Spencer Hawes (to CLV)
  • SF Evan Turner (to IND)
  • F/C Lavoy Allen (to IND)
  • A reported second-round pick, in an undetermined draft (to LAC)


These trades square up the Sixers’ roster at the 15-man maximum.

The biggest acquisition for the Sixers is Granger, the ninth-year forward who has battled injuries while playing only 34 games in the last two seasons. The 6-9, 228-pound Granger has played in the Pacers’ last 29 games, averaging 8.3 points and 3.6 rebounds. The 2009 All-Star and Most Improved Player has seen his career sidetracked by a host of knee injuries, including patellar tendinosis.

Granger is in the final year of his contract, and is making $14.01 million. As Hinkie has shown, he prefers to buy low and sell high – as was the case with casting off All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday as his career trajectory was on its ascension.

The trade brings to an end Evan Turner’s tenure with the Sixers. Turner never lived up to expectations heaped upon him as the No. 2 pick in the 2010 draft. Turner is averaging 17.4 points this season. Over his nearly four-season career, he’s averaged 11.8 points and 5.5 rebounds.

More on this to come…

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Report: Sixers trade Spencer Hawes to Cavs

(AP)
The 76ers have traded center Spencer Hawes to Cleveland, according to multiple reports.

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the trade Thursday morning, the day of the NBA trade deadline. Wojnarowski reported that the Sixers will receive two 2014 second-round picks, forward Earl Clark and center Henry Sims from the Cavaliers in return for Hawes.

Clark has a $4.25 million team option for next season, and Sims has nothing beyond this season, so the Sixers could financially cut ties with both at the end of this season.

Later in the day, the Sixers got two second-round picks (for an undisclosed draft year) and guard Eric Maynor from Washington in a three-team deal, that also included Denver, in which the Sixers gave up nothing significant. (It'll probably amount to cash.) Maynor has a $2.1 million player option for next season.

Hawes, traded to the Sixers from Sacramento in June 2010, spent nearly four seasons with the team. His two-year deal was set to expire at the end of the season.

The Sixers' initial interest in moving Hawes was to attain a first-round pick in return. As the trade deadline neared, it can only be assumed that Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie lowered his asking price to help facilitate a move.

More on this to come...


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Sixers coach Brett Brown has low expectations for trade deadline, leaving everything in GM Sam Hinkie's hands

(Associated Press)
The trade deadline is here.

The 76ers have until 3 p.m. this afternoon to decide whether to cut ties with free-agents-to-be Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, sell off Thaddeus Young and his one remaining year under contract plus a player option, or any conceivable configuration of the two. (The latest, it would seem, is an ESPN report that the Cavaliers are eying Hawes.)

What does Sixers coach Brett Brown think is going to happen?

“What I expect is nothing,” he said. “Every one of my years, this stuff has surfaced – and it’s to a greater level here – but it surfaces with San Antonio. We were very clandestine. We flew under the radar better than most. It inevitably, through the media, surfaces. It’s part of pro sport.

“I expect to wake up and coach the team I had the previous day. I think the stats and the facts confirm that opinion. Most times, this period of time is highly overblown.”

Brown’s involvement in roster moves for the Sixers is somewhat hands-off, he said at Wednesday’s practice. He said he leaves those goings-on to general manager Sam Hinkie. The two, Brown said, have a regular running dialogue, but the first-year coach said he and the Sixers’ ownership group trust Hinkie, the first-year GM.

“We talk all the time and, at the end of the day, I really trust Sam Hinkie’s judgment and I leave it with Sam,” Brown said. “My experience over the years is that not a lot happens. This is going to be left with Sam’s better judgment. This is why the club hired him. This is his strength. It doesn’t diminish communication at all.

“I’m in this for the long haul, and this is the first wave of a very long process. I coach this team, I enjoy coaching this team, I’m doing my very best to coach this team and we got up this morning, had a great, spirited session and life moves on.”

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