Lost in the shuffle of Thaddeus Young and the Sixers nearing a deal and subsequently agreeing to one was a small dependent clause of a Tweet by Sixers beat writer Kate Fagan, who by the way will be leaving the Inquirer for ESPN'ier pastures come Wednesday. Below is that Tweet.
This is kind of big news. Not Chris Paul Big News, because some people around the league still haven't realized the talent and Twitter Extraordinaire that is Marreese Speights, but for Sixers fans it's definitely something. Speights had shown flashes of potential in his three seasons in Philly, but it's been clear since Doug Collins came in that the two didn't like each other. Mo Speezy took to Twitter to complain about not getting minutes, Doug Collins took to his corn-cob pipe to complain about young kids on his lawn. Mo is definitely a talent, but it's obvious that this is Doug's team and it was only a matter of time before Speights was nudged out for his lackadaisical play and me-first mentality. He's scheduled to make $2.7 million this year before being a restricted free agent next offseason. A long term deal, we'd guess, doesn't seem to be in the cards.
Is there a potential suitor out there looking for the most unbankable 20 and 10 in the league? Probably a few murmurs. The good people of Detroit Bad Boys seem interested, having brought up a possible Kyle Singler/Will Bynum package for the former Gator. That's probably a good assessment of his market value, and if it were up to me I might pull the trigger on that deal. Doubtful that Speights is one of the few who would keep Dwight Howard happy in Orlando. Though I would pay to see Dwight do a Speights impression.
The way Fagan phrased it made a parting of the ways sound imminent. What kind of return do you think the Sixers could pull from a Speights deal? How can we collectively mourn the loss of the best passer of our time? Leave your suggestions and your Speeziness below.