I`m not sure if someone wrote about this topic before, and if they did, my apologies for the redundancy.

Anyway, over the past week or so I have come across a lot of blog posts (on other websites) where angry Philadelphia sports fans are complaining about the off-season and the "lack of aggressiveness" with regards to free agents this summer.

It seems most people feel the team should have been more aggressive and tried to obtain the best free agents on the market this year. The fans are impatient (this is typical in Philadelphia), they are tired of seeing a .500 team and they want some kind of response. They want a competitive team no matter what it takes. Aside from the idiots who want to see Iverson back on this team, most felt we should have been more aggressive in obtaining a shooting guard or a point guard. Upon the mentioning of luxury tax, this was irrelevent to them.  The attitude is, if the team cares about the fans, and thus, the purchasing of season tickets, the front office would go after the best free agents possible to make the team "more competitive."

I tend to be a little more conservative with my beliefs. If a front office is not wanting to go over the luxury tax threshold, I pause, and ask "why?" From my understanding, the team wants to develop their young core of talented players. It seems as if these players will need at least another year to develop. I imagine after Thad and Speights` rookie contracts expire, they will want to resign them. Afterall, I see them becoming very good players. So I can see why the sixers desire to preserve a little cap space. After their rookie contracts expire, these players will have been on the team for a few years, hopefully under a solid coach, with a group of players they know well. So I can also see the logic behing wanting to build up a team rather than acting rashly and trying to get the biggest names out on the market. This is also why I didn`t really mind seeing Andre Miller leave. I like the guy, he`s a solid player, but I know developing the younger players is more important for the future.

So anyway, I would like to hear what you think...

Is it best for the sixers to avoid the luxury tax?

Do you think this team is going anywhere with a core of Thad, Iguodala, Speights, Jrue, and four more years of Elton Brand?

arigatou gozaimasu