Inside the Sixers: Will Sixers make a move before trade deadline?

Now that we know just how vast and expansive the gap is between the 76ers and the Miami Heat, the team that is the only true measuring stick in the Eastern Conference, what's the next move for the Sixers?

They have plenty of excellent young players - Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, Nik Vucevic, Lavoy Allen, and Spencer Hawes are all 23 and under. These are guys the Sixers can commit to and develop. And the mix of veterans is a nice one.

But what are the expectations, and where can this go?

Where they go from here is much more about team president Rod Thorn than it is about coach Doug Collins, and this is where it gets complicated. Thorn sounds as if he is steadfastly committed to developing and maximizing the talent on the roster. For him, apparently, the slow and methodical approach is the way to make the Sixers better. A little more than a third of the way through the season, he has a scrappy, pugnacious team on top of the Atlantic Division with a real chance to win its first division title since 2001.

The reality check that was their second flogging in three weeks by the Heat, on Friday, left no doubt that the gulf between the Sixers and the Heat is still huge. When they first met in Miami and Dwyane Wade was in street clothes with an injury, the Heat won by 21 points. In the larger scheme of things, the absence of injured center Hawes from that game was mostly irrelevant.

With Wade in the lineup on Friday it was even worse. In beating the Sixers for the eighth consecutive time - not including Miami's 4-1 first-round playoff victory last year - the Heat scored as many points in the fourth quarter, 32, when they connected on 75 percent of their shots, as the Sixers did the entire second half.

Collins has outperformed every coach in the NBA this season - although Denver's George Karl is doing a pretty good job as well. It is hard to picture anyone milking more out of his team's talent than Collins. As currently constructed, the Sixers are - and some seem to be very happy with this - the little engine that could.

The Sixers' young players will almost certainly continue to improve. All one has to do is watch the improvement and overall surge in confidence that Evan Turner has exhibited this season over last.