It would be an insult to coach Maurice Cheeks, his staff and the Sixers players to label their surprise run to the NBA playoffs as fool's gold.

Still, there was a danger that things could have been misinterpreted, making the Sixers'

rebuilding project appear to be

farther along than it actually is.

Despite last night's 100-77 loss to the Detroit Pistons that ended this Eastern Conference first-round series in six games, this was an unexpected learning experience that should benefit these young players as they move forward.

It should not, however, be overvalued. In the grand scheme, nothing has changed.

The Sixers are far from complete.

Making the playoffs was a bigger-than-expected first step, but it doesn't mean they can skip any.

Coming into this season, the primary goal for this season was evaluation, for Sixers management to see what it had so it could determine what it needs to get to keep things moving forward.

I can't see any reason why making the playoffs should impact that decision.

"Getting extra games under the playoff pressure is good to see who responds," general manager Ed Stefanski said. "Besides the experience for the young players, I thought they played well."

Certainly, the Sixers performed better than any pundit, including yours truly, predicted.

Before the first game was played, they were viewed as one of the worst teams in the league.

The Sixers won 40 games, made the Eastern Conference playoffs as the seventh seed and pushed the heavily favored Pistons to six games.

That's the half-filled glass.

The half-empty glass is that the Sixers had a third straight losing season; 16 teams finished with more wins.

While the Sixers did indeed win two games against Detroit, the Pistons' four victories were by an average of more than 16 points.

And in the critical Games 5 and 6, Detroit won by 17 and 23 points without the Sixers ever posing a threat.

The simple analysis of this series is that Detroit was a more talented and more experienced team.

The encouraging thing is that Stefanski realizes all of this.

While he was certainly pleased with his young squad's effort in making the playoffs, he doesn't seem inclined to overestimate the significance of it.

"I don't think you can get too high or too low at any time you are evaluating players," Stefan-

ski said. "Making the playoffs was a terrific accomplishment, but I think you have to take the entire body of work, regular season and playoffs."

So what do we know?

We know that the Sixers' primary need is still a power forward with the talent to score big numbers and rebound down low.

That was and still is the top priority for the summer. They'll have approximately $17 million in cap space to fill that void via free agency or a trade.

We know that Andre Iguodala is not a No. 1 option on a championship-caliber team. The way he was shut down in this series confirmed that. He is a very good player, and if he's more realistic this summer than he was last summer when he turned down a reported $57 million offer, Iguodala should be brought back.

Iguodala might not be a superstar or even All-Star-level player, but you don't arbitrarily dismiss a guy who averaged 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.1 steals.

Point guard Andre Miller, who is 32, is not old. The supposed career year he had for the Sixers (17.0 points, 6.9 assists) wasn't that out of line with his career averages (14.4, 7.5).

He has shown no signs of decline, and with his size and strength should be effective for another good 3 to 5 years.

Center Samuel Dalembert is what he is - a 10-point and 10-rebound player. Again, that might not be All-Star caliber, but he's a big man with whom you can have success.

The youngsters, rookies Thaddeus Young and Jason Smith and third-year guard Lou Williams, showed they were up to the challenge of stepping up their games.

There were a lot of questions about the Sixers going into this season. The surprising playoff appearance answered some but not nearly enough.

Management knew this team was flawed at the beginning of the season. Many of those flaws still exist in spite of a better-than-expected finish. *

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