Doug Collin’s is doing what a lot of NBA coaches are doing right now — flying all over the country, racking up healthy cell phone minutes talking to the players on their roster. They talk about offseason workouts, parts of their game to focus on.
Because starting next Friday — when the lockout almost certainly begins — they will not be able to have that contact.
The most interesting meeting for the 76ers coach will be on the mean streets of Los Angeles… with Andre Iguodala. (Well, the streets are not going to be that mean wherever they meet, but you get the idea.) Collins told Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer the team wants to bring Iggy back, not trade him.“We want Dre,” Collins said after the press conference on Friday for draft choices Nikola Vucevic and Lavoy Allen at PCOM. “We want him back. He got nicked up last year and was hurt and we think Dre is one of the reasons we are a good defensive team.”
Collins will tell Iguodala that all the pre-draft trade rumors didn’t come from under the Sixers bunker.
“Nobody is out there shopping Dre,” Collins said.
Well, define shopping. Maybe the Sixers are not actively calling other general managers, but when their phone rings with other GMs calling about Iguodala they are not shooting the idea down. They are willingly exploring it. The problem is that nobody really wants to make a deal involving a big contract right now, not until they see the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Well, that problem and the fact that the Sixers likely would not get equal value back in an Iggy trade.
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said a lot of the Iguodala for Lamar Odom rumors were actually agent driven. No doubt somewhat true. But if Iggy’s agent knows his client wants out, it would be in the agent’s best interest to help line up a deal that is good for his client.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall for Collins’ meeting with Iguodala. Is it frosty, or is Iguodala completely good with coming back to the Sixers next season? Either way, you know Iggy is one guy working on his game. He will come back better next season. The question is only where.