Dumping Webber the right call for rebuilding Sixers

	Chris Webber's departure clears the way for a rebuilding Philadelphia team to focus more on its youth movement. Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images
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Now we're getting somewhere.

Philadelphia's release of disgruntled power forward Chris Webber is another sign that the Sixers are headed in the right direction. Webber was never the answer in Philadelphia; the 2001 version might have been. That Webber was an explosive scorer and an elite rebounder, a player capable of carrying a team on his shoulders. The Webber Philadelphia got from Sacramento was a broken-down version, a one-dimensional scorer whose limited mobility put him in the Dino Radja category of defensive players.

Cutting ties was the right move (a 76ers executive told me that they "love the direction they are going"). Sure, the Sixers are still on the hook for the bulk of Webber's 2007-2008 salary ($22.3 million), but evicting Webber from the Wachovia Center frees up valuable development time for Philadelphia's younger players. Can Samuel Dalembert ever morph into a legitimate post threat? Is Andre Iguodala capable of becoming a legitimate second scorer? Can Kyle Korver be anything more than a three-point threat?

And let's not forget the 2007 draft, which is said by many (myself included) to be the best top-to-bottom draft in a decade, with big men being an especially rich commodity. The Sixers, by virtue of their Allen Iverson trade, have three first-round picks. With Webber around, any young big men would be forced to share minutes with him. Instead, now any new post players will have the freedom to develop (read: be thrown into the fire) on a Philadelphia team going nowhere in the short term but with enormous potential down the line.

Whether Maurice Cheeks is around to see that growth is another story. Cheeks was on the hot seat before the season (well, every Philadelphia coach this decade has been on the hot seat), and the team's lackluster performance is likely to cost him his job this summer. That became more evident once Larry Brown came on board.

Seriously, why in the world would Philadelphia want Brown as an executive? The man discards players like gym socks. As a coach, however, he is the game's most accomplished teacher and would be an ideal fit to shape a young Philadelphia team. This is not a Detroit (or even New York) situation, where Brown frequently played veterans over his younger players. In Philadelphia, he would have few veterans and be forced to live with the mistakes of youth.

The next few years will be painful ones in Philadelphia. The team will struggle and in all likelihood the fans will flee in droves. But give GM Billy King credit: Sometimes you have to get worse before you can get better.