For the Sixers to make a trade, the team that acquired Dalembert would have to add an additional 15 percent to Dalembert's remaining salary.
"We tried numerous times to accommodate him, but we had to make sure it was a [good] basketball deal and on the other side, with that trade kicker, a lot of teams shied away," Stefanski said.
But Sacramento kept coming back. The two teams had numerous discussions for months, the latest coming about 2 weeks ago, according to Sacramento president Geoff Petrie. Earlier this week, all the details were finally ironed out, and Hawes and Nocioni, also not happy in Sacramento, will be coming east.
"I just looked at the landscape of the team and thought of how were the pieces fitting," said coach Doug Collins. "Obviously, I was never here and coached Sam, but just watching the dynamics and how it all fit, I just feel like now if you look at our big guys, every one of our big guys are skilled offensively and they can all shoot. I think that's a great thing to be able to do. Now you have four interchangeable big guys.
"Now, do you lose some rebounding and shot blocking? Yeah, probably. But chemistry changes, dynamics change. And I think it's good sometimes when guys change."
Collins has a foursome of bigs who can play the center position in the 7-1 Hawes, 6-9 Elton Brand, 6-11 Marreese Speights and 7-footer Jason Smith. Hawes provides finesse and not a ton of defense, while Brand will be counted on to rebound and score, probably coming off the bench. Speights can score with anyone in the league but has mostly been allergic to defense in his two seasons, while Smith can provide energy, rebounding and outside shooting. Not a dominant rebounder among them, though Collins is OK with that.
