On the NBA | Next summer, Sixers may spring into action

You are forgiven if you don't see light at the end of the 76ers' tunnel.

Their draft has potential, which may pay off in time but usually gets incumbent coaches fired. Nor are they in any position to go after meaningful free agents.

Yet the first week of free agency - the negotiating period began last Sunday - hasn't gone all that badly from the Sixers' perspective.

While many of the other Eastern Conference teams made moves that will make them marginally better next season, those deals will ultimately lead them to salary-cap prison. And that should leave the 76ers as one of the few teams east of the Mississippi with significant cap room next summer.

(Might as well get in the lotus position and chant your mantra for the next 52 weeks: Kevin Garnett . . . Elton Brand . . . Shawn Marion . . . Jermaine O'Neal . . . Gilbert Arenas . . .

Boston took on Ray Allen's remaining $51 million on draft night. With Paul Pierce's $59 million extension starting next year and emerging star Al Jefferson due for his own payday, the Celtics' budget is essentially frozen through 2010.

Isiah Thomas abruptly abandoned his plan to build a team of athletic runners and acquired productive but plodding forward Zach Randolph from Portland - along with Randolph's $61 million, killing any chance of the New York Knicks getting under the cap in 2009.

The New Jersey Nets threw another $60 million at Vince Carter, who, last we looked, couldn't get a shot off against Eric Snow in the playoffs.

The Orlando Magic repeated their two-superstar history (Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady) by giving free agent Rashard Lewis $75 million and committing to a max contract for Dwight Howard, locking themselves in through the Obama administration's first term.

Washington now has two first-rounders, Nick Young and Oleskiy Pecherov, coming off its bench. But the Wizards' biggest priority is re-signing Arenas and Antawn Jamison next summer.

Cleveland, Indiana and Miami are more or less stuck, obligated to pay millions to the likes of Larry Hughes, Troy Murphy and Antoine Walker. Milwaukee's first-round pick, Yi Jianlian, doesn't want to play there, and the Bucks still have to re-sign guard Mo Williams. Atlanta is in its 738th year of rebuilding.

Only Chicago, having added Joakim Noah in the draft, can still make a conference-altering move, with any number of enticing young bigs available to bundle with Ben Gordon to make a real run at Pau Gasol or Garnett.

But the Bulls (and the Pistons and the Raptors) are already light-years ahead of the Sixers. What's another parsec?

None of the above means that Billy King and Co. should be complacent. By all means, explore Mikki Moore, Darko Milicic and Derek Fisher - if they're willing to sign cheap, and short. In the interim, it might make sense to move Andre Miller now instead of next summer.

Here's why, and how: a three-way deal among the Sixers, Lakers and Wizards that could help everyone. (Please read this carefully: This is a suggestion from moi, not a rumor. Thank me later.)

Why not send Miller to Los Angeles, a team desperate for a point-guard upgrade, for Kwame Brown, entering the last year of his deal, a precious $9 million salary that could come off Philly's books next summer?

Washington would send center Etan Thomas, in whom the Sixers have had interest, to Philly, while sending guard Antonio Daniels to the Lakers. The Lakers would then send forward Vladmir Radmanovic, who endeared himself to Phil Jackson by hurting his shoulder in a snowboarding accident and then lying about it, to Washington.

To make the numbers work, the Sixers would send Steven Hunter, a much cheaper backup than Thomas, to the Wizards. And, most important, the Wizards would send back the draft rights to European guard Juan Carlos Navarro.

Navarro, 27, is one of the best guards in the world and wants to play in the NBA. It would take some creative negotiating to get him out of his Spanish contract, but creative teams - Toronto invented a buyout to import Anthony Parker last summer - get things done.

At the end of the day, the Lakers would solve their ballhandling problems, the Wizards would gain more immediate cap room for Arenas, and the Sixers would be a net $3.1 million ahead by exchanging Thomas' 2008-09 salary ($6.8 million), in essence, for Miller's $9.9 million. (Brown's and Miller's '07-08 salaries are a wash.) Hunter's $3.4 million for '08 would be off the books, too.

That's $6.5 million more that the Sixers would have in reserve next summer for that bumper crop of free agents than if they keep Miller another year.

And they would have the rights to Navarro.

Yes, they would still have to pay Thomas $7.3 million in 2009, but if we're still talking about rebuilding by then, it will be team president and head coach Larry Brown's problem.