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76ers use restraint on free-agent shopping this year

It was the summer of 2004, and the 76ers were in hot pursuit of free-agent center Mark Blount of the Boston Celtics. Blount had averaged 10.3 points and 7.2 rebounds the previous season and was seen as a rising player in the pivot.

It was the summer of 2004, and the 76ers were in hot pursuit of free-agent center Mark Blount of the Boston Celtics. Blount had averaged 10.3 points and 7.2 rebounds the previous season and was seen as a rising player in the pivot.

In the end, Blount re-signed with Boston for six years and $41 million. The Sixers were bitterly disappointed, believing a center of the future had gotten away.

Wonder how they feel now.

Since then, Blount has been shipped to Minnesota. And though he has been a double-figure scorer, he still is considered to be overpriced.

Team after team has been burned throwing big money at less-than-stellar free agents. So, with that in mind, the Sixers' decision not to go above offering Joe Smith $10 million over three years can be seen with some logic.

Smith was a fine player for the Sixers, a great locker-room addition, and a guy they truly wanted. In 54 games since being included in the Allen Iverson trade from Denver, he averaged 9.2 points and 6.7 rebounds.

Still, he will turn 32 this month, is entering his 13th NBA season, and hasn't averaged more than 13 points a game since 1998-99.

Though the Sixers may be criticized for not signing him, they thought that the two-year, $10 million deal the Chicago Bulls gave Smith was too steep.

The Sixers have never been afraid to spend. Those expenditures haven't always been wise, but they have been well above the salary cap for years.

So now the Sixers will use their money judiciously and gear up for next year, when they are expected to be at least $9 million under the cap.

Teams over the years have been burned by paying high salaries to players well below the superstar level. Just ask the New York Knicks, who signed seldom-used center Jerome James to a five-year, $29 million contract.

In a phone interview Saturday, Sixers president and general manager Billy King said his team would use discipline in the free-agent market. Oddly enough, he cited the team that beat the Sixers out for Smith.

"Look at what a good job Chicago has done," King said. "They had the discipline not to overspend, and last year they were able to have the cap room to sign Ben Wallace."

The Bulls also have agreed to re-sign Andres Nocioni. They could extend the contracts of guard Ben Gordon and forward Luol Deng. And they will be among the favorites in the Eastern Conference.

One NBA executive, when asked about the Sixers' attempt to re-sign Smith, said, "I like him, but I wouldn't go crazy in what I would offer him."

With a power-forward group that includes Louis Amundson, rookie Jason Smith, Shavlik Randolph and Steven Hunter, the Sixers aren't exactly loaded at the position.

So King will try to make a trade. Since quality power forwards aren't in abundance, it won't be easy. Neither is showing restraint in the free-agent market.

Three years ago, the Celtics thought they had pulled off a coup in signing Blount.

As it turned out, it was the best move the Sixers didn't make.