Philly future features Williams ... but not Larry Brown

Louis Williams, drafted in the second round out of high school in 2005, is starting to blossom in his third season with the 76ers. Mark Goldman/Icon SMI

MAILBAG Ian Thomsen will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

I'm thinking that the shadow of Larry Brown had something to do with the surprising move the 76ers made Tuesday to replace Billy King with Ed Stefanski, the new president and general manager in Philadelphia.

I'm also thinking that this is an intriguing roster for Stefanski to inherit, thanks to young 76ers like Louis Williams.

Why make the move now? One league source reports that team chairman Ed Snider was pushing for Brown to reclaim control of the Sixers from coach Maurice Cheeks. Some within the organization sensed that the coup would happen before the end of the season.

But the rest of the Comcast-Spectacor ownership board didn't like the highly expensive idea of restoring Brown to power, which is why Comcast president Peter Luukko appears to have been granted new control over the 76ers. It was Luukko who made the initial call that wrested Stefanski from the Nets.

The short of it is that Brown will have to find his next coaching job elsewhere -- I'm sure he will be coaching in the NBA by next season -- while Stefanski spends this year evaluating the 76ers from bottom to top. Of course, there are still some awful contracts to deal with, starting with the $10.3 million being paid this year to center Samuel Dalembert with three more seasons to come. But the immediate future isn't so bad: When the ghosts of Chris Webber, Aaron McKie and Greg Buckner expire in June, the 76ers will have cap space to recruit a below-max free agent as well as to re-sign Andre Iguodala, if Stefanski chooses to keep him.

The good news for Stefanski is that everyone on the roster is tradable, including Dalembert, who is producing an agreeable 8.7 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 10.8 points on 50.4 percent shooting. Yet the most intriguing young Sixer is Williams, a 6-2 guard who arrived out of high school in the second round (No. 45) in the 2005 draft.

After hardly playing his first two years, Williams could have been dismissed as a hopeless tweener -- an undersized 175-pound scorer who lacked point-guard skills.

"I wasn't sure that I was able to play in the NBA my rookie year,'' Williams admitted. Yet as a 21-year-old, Williams is suddenly averaging 10.8 points and 3.4 assists in 22.1 minutes and shooting 47.1% from the three-point line.

He bears little resemblance to the teenager who won the 2005 Naismith award as the nation's top high school player. Williams scored 3,338 points while making the all-state team four years with South Gwinnett High School in suburban Atlanta.

"In high school I was a loose cannon, but that has a lot to do with having the green light to do whatever you wanted to do,'' he said. "I could come across half-court and jack one if I felt like it in high school.''

Today he plays to a different style entirely. With Cheeks studying video of each game with him, Williams is becoming a point guard who prefers the simple play, as his 2-to-1 assist-turnover ratio suggests. With the help last summer of consultant Mark Price (now with the Memphis Grizzlies), Williams has recast his jump shot from the pigeon-toed stroke he brought to the NBA two years ago.

"Guys used to call me 'left-right' because I used to shoot the ball from the left side of my head and bring it over,'' he said. "Now it's all straight, everything is directly to the basket. It was terrible at first because I was struggling with it. I wasn't comfortable shooting the basketball, and I was shooting it flat. But I just kept working toward it.''

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