Tony Dileo

The 76ers took the floor against the Washington Wizards under new coach Tony DiLeo for the first time last night at the Wachovia Center. First-year Sixer Elton Brand scored a season-high 27 points and the Sixers snapped their three-game losing streak with a 104-89 victory. Earlier yesterday, team president and general manager Ed Stefanski announced the dismissal of Maurice Cheeks after three-plus seasons with the Sixers. Among the reasons Stefanski gave for the change was to give the team a fresh face and new perspective.

The 76ers yesterday promoted Tony DiLeo to senior vice president and assistant general manager, and made Courtney Witte director of player personnel. Billy King, the team's president and general manager, also said Kevin Johnson has been hired as head trainer and John Tooher named assistant trainer. "These moves complete the reshaping of the basketball operations department," King said. "Tony and Courtney have been an integral part of our off-season player moves for many years.

JORDAN COHN was named a pro personnel scout for the 76ers, the team announced. "We are committed to improving all facets of our basketball operations department and we are happy to announce the addition of Jordan Cohn to the Sixers," general manager Tony DiLeo said. "Jordan is one of the most talented and respected scouts in the NBA and will be an invaluable resource for the upcoming season. " Cohn was a scout with the New Jersey Nets for the past eight seasons, after previously working for the New York Knicks as director of pro player personnel and working in the Miami Heat organization.

The 76ers started meeting yesterday with candidates they might select in the June 29 NBA draft. The Sixers have one top-11 lottery pick, the position of which will be determined in the draft lottery on Sunday; the 20th overall pick, which came from Utah in the Jeff Hornacek trade, and their own second-round pick, which falls at No. 33. First in yesterday was Dickey Simpkins, a 6-foot-9 forward from Providence, who has played well in...

Florida State forward Al Thornton, who was supposed to work out for the 76ers yesterday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, pulled out with a sprained ankle. The 6-foot-8 Thornton has rescheduled the workout for Monday. Meanwhile, four members of the Sixers' front office will be in Los Angeles today for a private workout by Yi Jianlian, a highly touted 6-11 power forward from China. The Sixers have three first-round picks in the June 28 draft. Yi is represented by Dan Fegan, who has set up workouts for NBA teams in Los Angeles.

Doug Collins, who will come to town later this month to settle in as the 76ers' coach, has been working the phones and the text-message system to make initial contact with as many of his players as possible. "I've reached out to six, seven guys and left messages," said Collins, who has already met with Andre Iguodala. "Every one I called got back to me within minutes. I just want them to know there's some hope in the air, and what came back to me was a sense that they're ready for some change.

The night the 76ers left for this five-game road trip, point guard Andre Miller put a number on success: three. Miller said that was how many games the Sixers should win on a Western swing that consisted of games against the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers. The Sixers met that goal last night by posting a 114-108 overtime victory over the Blazers. Essentially, Miller believed the Sixers should grab the two winnable games - against the sub-.

Eleven games remain on the 76ers' schedule. The Sixers know each one will be similar to a playoff game, especially tonight's contest against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace at Auburn Hills. Not only are the Sixers immersed in their own playoff-seeding hunt - racing against the Miami Heat for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference - but the Pistons are in the eighth and final playoff spot, only 2 1/2 games ahead of the Charlotte Bobcats. After winning seven of their previous nine games, the Sixers lost to the Bobcats, 100-95, at home Friday night, dropping to 37-34 and slipping to sixth place behind the Heat.

Samuel Dalembert went out to the court to test his sprained left ankle about an hour before last night's game against the New Jersey Nets at the Wachovia Center and declared himself fit to play. He started, and it was obvious that his gait was slightly affected. He played almost 15 minutes and scored two points. The 6-foot-11 center suffered the injury during the second quarter of the Sixers' 104-94 victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday and did not play again. For his trouble, Dalembert was hit with a three-second call after going down in the lane.

An MRI exam conducted yesterday on the right calf of 76ers guard Andre Miller revealed a strain, and he is officially listed as day to day with the team set to visit the Miami Heat tomorrow. The injury, which Miller suffered during the third period of the Sixers' 101-89 loss to the visiting Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, could end the veteran's streak of consecutive games played at 501. That is the NBA's longest among active players. Tayshaun Prince of the Detroit Pistons is second with 465. Miller was unavailable for comment after the team practiced yesterday at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, but coach Tony DiLeo and guard Lou Williams were not counting the Sixers' playmaker out. "We'll have to wait to see [today]

WASHINGTON - At this point, a lot of disgruntled Philadelphia fans would be just as happy if they never see center Andrew Bynum playing basketball in a Sixers uniform. The Sixers organization must be a bit more logical in its decisions concerning Bynum, and right now the former All-Star who has missed the entire season with knee issues still is in play for the Sixers' future plans. "[Bynum] is Plan A," general manager Tony DiLeo told reporters before Sunday's game. "Until we get the answers, until we make a decision, it's a calculated decision or a risk-management decision, that's something we'll have to make at the end of the year, going into free agency.

ABOUT A WEEK ago, while delivering his latest update on MIA center Andrew Bynum, Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo said the organization has "plans for the future" if Bynum's aching knees prevent him from playing. After watching the Sixers get taken apart, 105-88, by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Center, I'd say the future is pretty much now. The Sixers don't have to give up hope that Bynum will eventually be able to play this season, but whatever contingency plan they have needs to be put into action.

There is no longer a timeline for 76ers center Andrew Bynum to make his debut with the team, according to general manager Tony DiLeo. "I just want to emphasize that we have been forthcoming and consistent with the information," DiLeo said. "We have said all along that we need some patience, and that this is hard to predict this healing process and that Andrew is the indicator and how his body reacts is how we can take the next step in his rehab program. The bottom line is that Andrew is out indefinitely; we don't know when he'll be back.

JORDAN COHN was named a pro personnel scout for the 76ers, the team announced. "We are committed to improving all facets of our basketball operations department and we are happy to announce the addition of Jordan Cohn to the Sixers," general manager Tony DiLeo said. "Jordan is one of the most talented and respected scouts in the NBA and will be an invaluable resource for the upcoming season. " Cohn was a scout with the New Jersey Nets for the past eight seasons, after previously working for the New York Knicks as director of pro player personnel and working in the Miami Heat organization.

Almost one year ago, Tony DiLeo left a conversation with 76ers principal owner Joshua Harris in which DiLeo, who has coached the team, headed up the scouting department and had been team president and general manager Rod Thorn's right-hand man in a 22-year career with the team, made it known that being the team's general manager was his ultimate goal. On Friday, the Sixers granted DiLeo's wish, promoting him from executive vice president of basketball operations to general manager.

Not long after it was announced that longtime team loyalist Tony DiLeo was being promoted to general manager of the 76ers, Rod Thorn, the man he eventually will succeed, was singing his praises. "Tony has been here for years - he's loyal, he's faithful," said Thorn, the team president. "I think that he's going to do a great job. " Thorn will continue in his role as president until the end of the 2012-13 season. At that point he will step into a consultant's role with the Sixers.

The 76ers, having gone outside the organization early on in their search for a general manager to eventually replace Rod Thorn, are now looking inward - this time at senior vice president of basketball operations Tony DiLeo. According to a team source, the Sixers, who have interviewed four others from outside the organization for Thorn's position, were impressed with the role DiLeo played this summer alongside Thorn as the team rebuilt the team around center Andrew Bynum. Attempts to reach DiLeo via phone were unsuccessful.

When the 76ers make their first selection Thursday in the NBA draft, the player they add with the 15th overall pick will have been scrutinized by coaches and scouts for hundreds of hours. They will know, for the most part, every strength and weakness of his game. Though it knows what type of weak-side defender a player might be at the NBA level, none of the basketball brain trust will know how that player's mind works. That's why, when asked about a player's mental makeup and his personality, the response usually is about a player's "motor" or lack thereof.

While it is not his job to put the talent together, the job of evaluating and projecting which players will and will not help the Sixers is a huge part of what director of player personnel Courtney Witte does. Witte has spent most of the last week evaluating players at the NBA predraft camp in Chicago and in Treviso, Italy, where he and senior vice president of basketball operations Tony DiLeo scouted the players dubbed the best in Europe. On Friday morning, Witte put two more players through the paces - Big East rookie of the year Moe Harkless of St. John's and Georgetown's Hollis Thompson - as the Sixers attempt to finalize their plans for the June 28 draft.