Sixers growing up in a hurry during unexpected surge

Coach Maurice Cheeks received a contract extension amid the 76ers' turnaround. AP

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Less than three months ago, the 76ers had a new team president who was on the verge of trading his best shooter amid rumors that he would be auctioning point guard Andre Miller. A laborious deconstruction appeared to be underway, aimed at rebuilding with draft picks and cap space.

Now, the 76ers are one of the hottest teams in the league. No major changes have been made (after the trade involving shooter Kyle Korver), and coach Maurice Cheeks -- in the final weeks of his lame-duck contract -- recently was awarded a one-year extension.

"I wish I could tell you I saw this coming,'' Cheeks said of Philadelphia's 18-5 record since Feb. 5 heading into Wednesday's game against the Bulls. "I didn't know we were going to win like that.''

But he didn't give up, either. Buoyancy is a signature quality of the undervalued Cheeks, who kept his young team together despite the mounting losses that followed the cap-clearing trade of Korver to Utah (the Dec. 29 move netted the 76ers a future first-round pick and Gordan Giricek, who has since been waived).

"Korver can shoot the heck out of the ball and he was good for our team, so when he left it was a downer,'' Cheeks said. "I got our guys together and I explained to them about the league and how things happen, and how we've got to move on. And then we got a lot of input from guys like Kevin Ollie and Willie Green, and it was amazing how that helped our players along. You've got some young guys here who don't understand about trades and about guys being here one day and gone the next.''

The Sixers have eight players who are 25 and younger. As helpful as it was for Ollie and Green to relate how each player needed to seize opportunities for himself and for the team after the departure of Korver, the Sixers nonetheless lost eight of their next nine games, including blowouts at Portland, Denver, the Lakers and Toronto.

"I remember going to San Antonio -- that was our seventh straight loss -- and I told them before the game, 'It's going to end,' " Cheeks said. "I told them, 'I don't know where I got this from, but I know something good is going to happen, it's going to end and it's going to turn.' "

They lost a tight game to the Spurs, then overcame a 16-point second-half deficit the following night in Houston for the 111-107 win that rescued their season. Since early last month, the Sixers have risen from an 18-30 loser bound for the lottery to become the No. 6 team in the East at 36-35, leaving them a half game behind the fifth-seeded Wizards.

The Sixers are running for 100.5 points over their last 33 games (22-11), they're sharing the ball via Miller, and they're realizing the full-court versatility of Andre Iguodala, who at 24 is turning into a strong leader.

"That's one of the reasons why he have played the way we have,'' Cheeks said of Iguodala. "He shows it not in a yelling type of way. He was learning to be that leader, and it wasn't easy when we were losing.''

Increasing the pressure on Iguodala was his decision last summer to turn down a five-year, $57 million extension from the 76ers. Of all the fourth-year players to make similar decisions -- including Charlotte's Emeka Okafor and the Bulls' Luol Deng and Ben Gordon -- one of the few to respond in a positive way has been Iguodala, who is averaging 19.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.1 steals.

"I think some other guys, they got caught up in the trade talks, and I think the trade talk can affect you more than anything,'' Iguodala said in sympathy for Deng and Gordon, who in the early season were material in a rumored trade for Kobe Bryant (and doesn't that seem a long time ago). "They [the preseason predictors who unanimously believed the 76ers would return to the lottery] said we weren't good, so we pretty much had nothing to lose, while the other guys [Deng and Gordon] had some expectations.''

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