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Doug Collins departs as Sixers coach with a win

Doug Collins parts as the Sixers' coach with a win and most likely a consultant gig that will require no more heavy lifting.

Doug Collins hugs Thaddeus Young before the final game of the season. Collins said he was not sure whether he would return as the 76ers' coach.
Doug Collins hugs Thaddeus Young before the final game of the season. Collins said he was not sure whether he would return as the 76ers' coach.Read more   MICHAEL CONROY / AP

INDIANAPOLIS - The end came Wednesday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse - one of the best arenas in the NBA. Although it probably won't be officially announced until Thursday, Doug Collins oversaw his final game as 76ers coach against the Indiana Pacers.

He will most likely be handed a consultant title and basically a buyout from the organization, and move on to something else that will keep his competitive fires burning. Or, he'll put them out for a while and just relax.

After watching his team close out the season with a 105-95 win over the Indiana Pacers, Collins was asked about his future with the team.

"I don't know. I don't know," he said. "I'm the coach."

Before the game, he spoke as if he was going to be back, as if the future of the organization was going to include him, although it most likely won't. As in his previous coaching stints, Collins did not stay past his third season.

"Everybody talks about my third year with teams. I always love it," he said sarcastically. "Every third year that I've had we've had a major trade. In Chicago we traded for Bill Cartwright with [Charles] Oakley [in 1988]. In Detroit we totally rebuilt our team. We had a 54-win team and we knew it wasn't a 54-win team so we signed Bison Dele in the offseason [in '97] and then we traded Theo [Ratliff] for Jerry Stackhouse and we worked our cap to about $16 million under the cap because we knew it was Michael's [Jordan] last year, we thought we put ourselves in a great position to make a run. This year we made the big deal for Andrew Bynum.

"[We had] great expectations and we spent a lot of time after last year and the nice playoff run of trying to retool our team. We retooled it once with some of the things we did with the amnesty of E.B. [Elton Brand] and some of the free-agency signings and with our draft, and then retooled it again with Andrew [Bynum]. It was a very exciting time to come to training camp . . . and then right before training camp get the news that Andrew had bruised his kneecap and so that was supposed to be a month and then it just started to go on. We got off to a good start, then we started to get nicked up a little bit with some injuries and then we had a brutal schedule. The 15-game schedule through the holidays was as tough a schedule as I've ever been around in the NBA. It was a season of trying to fit pieces together. We had a lot of pieces that we thought were going to fit nicely with the group we had, and then all of the sudden we started seeing maybe how things were going to fit differently. We tried a lot of different starters at that one wing position."

In the end it is what wore him down. The roster he thought he was going to oversee never came about. And now, a season of rebuilding appears to be at hand, and at 61 it doesn't appear to be something Collins has the energy to be a major part of. So he'll most likely walk, though he did offer a glimpse of what he sees for the future of this organization.

"You've got a nice nucleus to build," he said. "We've had Evan [Turner] for 3 years, we've had Jrue [Holiday] for 4, 3 with me. Spencer [Hawes] has really developed, I'm really proud of what he's done in 3 years. You know what you have in Thad [Young]. I'm excited watching Justin Holiday play here, I think he's got a spot where he can really help you, Arnett [Moultrie] has played well. I think it's going to be good for him going into the summer that he knows exactly what he needs to do. It's the greatest thing when a young player can get out there and play and you know what you have to do going into next season.

"You've got draft picks. You've got - depending on how the team is built in terms of free agency - you could have some money under the cap. The one guy to me that is going to have to really [improve] is Lavoy [Allen]. Lavoy is important to this franchise. If Lavoy will bounce back and have a good year next year, and if you have Lavoy and Spencer and you put Thad and you put Arnett, you have four young bigs and now can you keep adding to that. And then Dorell [Wright] has been a real welcomed addition. We've got shooting, we've got some young players, we've got flexibility. I think there's a lot of hope."

For Collins, the "we" will soon become "they."

Game stuff

Indiana, which secured the No. 3 playoff spot in the East, didn't use Wednesday night's meeting with the 76ers as a tune-up for the postseason. Rather, it was mostly a night of rest. Four of the Pacers' regular starters began the game as spectators. The Sixers scored the first nine points and the tone was set for a meaningless contest.

Dorell Wright led the Sixers - who led by as many as 26 - with 23 points. Evan Turner scored 16 and Damien Wilkins added 15. Lavoy Allen added 11 points and 11 rebounds and Thaddeus Young contributed 10 and eight. Rookie Arnett Moultrie had a career-high 12 rebounds to go with 14 points.

The Sixers finished the season 34-48. They'll go into the offseason with many uncertainties. The trade for Andrew Bynum didn't work out, coach Doug Collins is expected to be replaced, and the roster will mostly be turned over.

Owner Josh Harris and Collins are scheduled to meet with the media on Thursday morning, most likely to announced that Collins is out as the head coach.