Stephen A. Smith | Cheeks has to make things go

Summertime is beautiful, isn't it? It's only during this time of the year that you hear of Lou Williams being the 76ers' heir-apparent at point guard. That a Louis Amundson gets noticed for registering a double-double. That players are spotted in Philadelphia's College of Osteopathic Medicine, when they are not in Utah for summer-league action, working on their bodies and their games in anticipation of the coming season.

The thing is, when all of this becomes important we'll be sure to let you know, because it means absolutely nothing right now. The games don't count yet. Neither will most of these players by the time this season rolls around. So let's focus on what's really important: Maurice Cheeks.

Mainly, the direction he's aiming for with this team.

Too early for this nonsense? Not so! Not with this season coming up. And not with Allen Iverson and Chris Webber gone, leaving Cheeks free to shape this franchise in his image.

"About a week after our season-ending meeting with the players, Mo and I talked about that," Sixers president Billy King said yesterday. "We talked about how this is an opportunity for him to really make this team his own. His image. His style. His approach. Everything. Considering our youth, it's obvious.

"That's not a knock on Mo or anybody. But we all know anytime you've got stars on a team who've been here a little while, you're going to deal with things differently because guys have their ways and you have to work through that. [Cheeks] doesn't have that issue anymore. He's free and in the clear to do what he believes."

Is that right?

So, Cheeks can bench anyone he likes. He can fine anyone he likes. He can expel them from practice, make them go stand in a corner, or exile them from any game he sees fit, huh? Listening to the Sixers, especially since those two guys left (I can't remember their names. Sorry!), Cheeks might as well be king (not Billy).

Now let's see what he'll do with his newfound power for an entire season.

Last season ended with a 35-47 record and, to hear the boys over at the Wachovia Center tell it, they were heading in the right direction.

Players wanted to play and be coached. They were interested in winning community service awards, too. They even liked their mascot, Hip-Hop. The Sixers' dance team wasn't bad, either. And if any of it had something to do with Cheeks, perhaps there would be some interest.

Instead, while the rest of the Atlantic Division improves, we have questions.

Will the Sixers possess the kind of focus and tenacity that made their coach a nominee for the Hall of Fame, or imitate their tendencies from last season and have hometown fans serenading them with chants of "Mr. Softee"? Will Cheeks emerge to remind us all he's a bona-fide contemporary of Pat Riley and Scott Skiles and Gregg Popovich? Or will we only know this because the Sixers keep reminding us while a city pleads, "Please, stop telling us that! We just want to play the right way!"

By accounts, the Sixers have been moving in the right direction for months. They've practiced harder. Played harder. Played better together, as their 30-28 record over the final 58 games after Iverson was traded proved. And they still swear they didn't pay the competition to turn the other cheek . . . even at a time when little fibs such as these are usually revealed.

"The thing I'm most pleased about is how hard the guys have worked this summer," King continued. Samuel "Dalembert has been in the gym. [Kyle] Korver, [Andre] Iguodala, Willie Green, Williams and Amundson. They've all been working on their games day and night. You need your guys working on their games before the season, not just during the season. That's the kind of stuff that will make [Cheeks'] job easier because it'll be much easier to demand from everyone when your core guys are giving you what you need."

We get the message.

The Sixers didn't always do what they were supposed to do in the off-season. Now their personnel has changed. So have the times. And, the franchise is 100 percent behind the last point guard to deliver this city an NBA title.

Meanwhile, they've kept a close eye on Williams, the future point guard, knowing his development could transform into some trade opportunities involving Andre Miller, the present point guard whom chairman Ed Snider loves so much.

"Who knows what the future holds?" King said. "Everything could depend on what we look like early in the season. We just don't know right now."

It's obvious he's talking about the players.

Let's hope he isn't talking about the coach, too.