With Speights out, Brand looking for more minutes with Sixers

WITH TOP RESERVE Marreese Speights sidelined perhaps until after the New Year with a partial tear of the MCL in his left knee, 76ers coach Eddie Jordan is going to have to find someone, or several someones, to pick up the slack of 23.4 minutes, 13 points and 6.4 rebounds that Speights provided.

First candidate is Elton Brand. The 6-9 power forward has seen limited minutes so far this season for the 4-6 Sixers, and has been relegated to the bench during the fourth quarter of recent games while Speights has been gobbling up those minutes.

"We'll see, we'll see," Brand said when asked if he thought it would be him getting more minutes. "Hopefully it is. I've just got to go out there and be prepared for it. Something's got to give, something's got to change soon. Whatever happens, we need to win. That's the most important part."

Brand, who is averaging just 27.1 minutes a game thus far, was then asked if he's physically ready to play an abundance of minutes after missing most of the past two seasons with injuries.

"Yeah, absolutely," he affirmed. "I haven't been. Some games have been 20 minutes or 18. But now the minutes are there. I'll be prepared. Yeah, I could still play 40 minutes."

Minutes later, though, it was confirmed by Jordan that won't be happening.

"No," said Jordan when asked if Brand is a 38-to-40-minute per game player. "He's never had 2 years of injuries [before], so he's not a 40-minute player now. I mean, you can put him out there for 40 minutes, but I don't know how effective he's going to be. I know he won't be effective in those minutes because it's a process with his coming back after 2 years. That's why he hasn't played. I would put him in the game if I knew he was high-level in the fourth quarter. It's just not there."

At the end of yesterday's practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Brand was playing the center spot with the second team.

"We have him playing some five [center] with the second unit," Jordan said. "He hasn't done that, he's always been a forward. So that's why he's been in that position in practice."

Then Jordan was asked if that meant there would be a change in the starting lineup.

"Um, [long pause] . . . who knows?" Jordan said. "Nothing is going to change until Wednesday, if there is a change."