Philadelphia has gone another direction — Andre Iguodala is out, Andrew Bynum is in as the new face of the franchise. The young, anchor center who has Philly talking about something other than the Eagles. Well, for five minutes.
The idea is to sell hope in Philly and build on a young core of Bynum, Evan Turner, Jrue Holiday and others. Things are changing.
But things could change a lot more in the next couple years as the Sixers are loaded with short term deals — including Bynum’s — points out Nick Menta at CSNPhilly.com.In fact, there will be a grand total of nine Sixers whose contracts will expire within the next two years.
Five of those contracts -- Bynum, Jrue Holiday, Nick Young, Dorell Wright and Royal Ivey -- are up at the end of next season. Four more -- Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes, Kwame Brown and Lavoy Allen -- expire at the end of the 2013-14 season. For reference, Brown’s is technically for one season with a player option for a second, though his agent has called it a two-year deal.
Brown is picking up that option. And smart money says Bynum will re-sign after the season.
Philly isn’t likely to make radical changes, they will extend (or at least give a qualifying offer to) Holiday, they likely extend Turner, they have Thaddeus Young still for a few years.
But as the Sixers see what they are missing with this new look and lineup, once they see what needs to be changed and added to really make this work and improve, they should have the flexibility to do it. Not next season, Bynum’s extension will soak up most of the space they have, but in the years after that.
It’s a pretty good time to be hopefully in Philly. Right now, Bynum is handling everything beautifully. We’ll see if it is all the same when the Eagles season is over.