The paradox is this: Several young Sixers grew leaps and bounds after Kyle Korver was traded away to the Utah Jazz in December. Thaddeus Young got far more minutes. Lou Williams benefited. Rodney Carney's young career was reclaimed. Reggie Evans became a semicult figure, his name chanted appreciatively as the Sixers took Game 3 here last Friday and grabbed that now infamous double-digit, first-half lead here on Sunday.

Maybe they're not even here without all those extra minutes that Korver's departure provided. But the last impression about this team, the lingering one amid a 100-77 blowout loss in an elimination game last night, is that Korver might have made a difference for them.

Because the Sixers starved for an outside shooter in this series. Rasheed Wallace had two more three-pointers than the Sixers' entire team. The Sixers were starved for points at times the way they were right after Korver was traded - when it seemed they were headed for a lottery pick, not this stage.

"Nobody expected this team to make the playoffs," said Andre Miller, the biggest reason they did. "Never mind win two games against . . . one of the five best teams in the league."

Of the early mistakes the Pistons made in this series, allowing Miller to operate freely was the biggest. He scored 20 or more points in two of the first three games of the series, but by the end, he looked exhausted, and uncharacteristically frustrated.

He was not alone. Throughout the series, Andre Iguodala was put in a bottle and corked. Every basketball nuance that Samuel Dalembert still doesn't get was exposed. Once they got interested, the Pistons challenged everything, made every drive

to the hole seem as if it were a fourth-and-1.

And as it unfolded, as the Pistons ran off to a 30-12 first-quarter lead and courtside

fans could be heard amid the deadened silence pleading with Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks to "change the lineup," you couldn't help but wonder if they could have made it here somehow with Korver, couldn't have somehow balanced the need to find extra minutes for their youngens without jettisoning their best shooter, and one of their only veterans.

"If I had that answer . . . shoot," Cheeks said before the game.

Good word, shoot. Fits here. The Sixers need another star, a scorer, a shooter. They knew that going in, but maybe not as much as they know now, after Iguodala's struggles in these playoffs. He had 16 points last night, but not one came until the deficit was double digits. Still, he is a good player, a good teammate, and he never stopped trying in this series. As Cheeks said: "You learn a lot about a guy when things aren't going well. He hasn't said anything about any player. He stayed late after practice trying to get himself going."

All commendable. And maybe if the Sixers obtain that extra weapon this summer, he will find more freedom next April than he did in this one. Because his struggles to find open shots and then make them were epic at times; painful to watch, really. And whether he stays here or finds another home, he probably won't get the $60 million over five seasons he reportedly asked for before this season began.

It's another paradox. The Sixers might have a better chance of keeping him and adding that extra piece thanks to Detroit's defense.

And that's another point of clarity. Were the embarrassing losses that ended with last night's elimination loss to the Pistons a true schooling?

Or an indication that there are far more structural faults to this team than the finish to their regular season implied?

Cheeks believes in the former.

"Going through a playoff series and having some success in it, you learn so much in it," he said. "I've said this from Day 1. You can't talk about being in the playoffs. You have to be in it to experience it.

"And I think our guys, from the moment they started playing in it, have grown up fast. Because they had to. They were out on the floor, being counted on."

And for a time, at least, until Detroit became Detroit, being successful.

Would Korver have made them more successful? Shoot, who really knows? But if this truly was the start of something larger, there's as good a chance that he would have gotten in the way. *

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