To help create space for signing Brand, the Sixers will trade Rodney Carney and a draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves, along with the contract of Calvin Booth, though the Timberwolves are not expected to keep Booth. The Sixers will get Minnesota’s trade exception in return, meaning the deal amounts to a salary dump.

Getting Brand is a dream scenario for the Sixers, but one source says it is not as much of a surprise as it seems to those of us outside NBA front offices. Before the start of free agency, the Sixers were hoping Brand or Shawn Marion—or both—would opt out so that they could put together an offer. All along, the Sixers have wanted to bring in a veteran who could push them into the top 5 in the East immediately.

That fact, combined with the surprise opt-out by Baron Davis and his quick move to the Clippers, has some around the league scratching their heads. It’s nearly impossible to prove, but many believe Davis’ camp had contact with the Clippers before he opted out. Now, the same is being said about Brand and the Sixers. Teams and players are not supposed to talk about free agency before July 1. But the Sixers’ interest in Brand may not be as sudden as it seems to have been.

“You have to wonder how much communication is really going on before July 1,” says a different league source. “It’s a lot more than anyone wants to admit. Did Elton Brand opt out without having conversations with Philadelphia? He’d be crazy not to talk to them. It’s stretching the rules, but there are ways to have those conversations without it being known.”

At this point, it doesn’t matter. Brand appears ready to join the Sixers and, in doing so, should make Philadelphia immediately relevant in the East, possibly putting them among the three or four best teams in the conference.

Magic’s man

Lost in the shuffle of Brand’s impending deal is the signing of Mickael Pietrus by the Orlando Magic, first confirmed to Florida Today by Magic general manager Otis Smith. Bill McCandless, Pietrus’s agent, acknowledged the deal to Sporting News Tuesday evening.

By McCandless’ count, it has been a grueling 372 days for Pietrus. Last summer, Pietrus was one of the players suffering in the purgatory of restricted free agency. Pietrus even considered holding out. He was finally forced to accept a one-year offer from the Golden State Warriors, then was miscast as a power forward in coach Don Nelson’s system.

“It will be nice,” McCandless said, “to see Mickael in a normal position, away from Nellie’s system. He is moving up two spots, from power forward to shooting guard.”

McCandless said 11 teams were interested in Pietrus but only five were serious. It came down to Orlando or Detroit, with Atlanta also a possibility. For the Pistons, Pietrus would have been a reserve. With the Magic he will start, McCandless was told, not at power forward, but at the more natural shooting guard spot.

“It was not the most lucrative offer,” McCandless said. “But the opportunity, combined with the money, to start for an up-and-coming team was too much to pass up. He could have gotten the same money, or more, from Detroit. But he would have been coming off the bench. … It becomes a matter of timing. Orlando had the perfect spot for him. You have the threat of someone else moving into the spot. We did not want to wake up tomorrow and find that Otis had signed someone else.”

McCandless said he and the Magic agreed not to release the financial terms of the deal. But he did say it is a four-year contract, with Pietrus possessing an option to terminate after three years. Another source says that the deal will be worth about $25 million over the four years.

Don’t call it a comeback

A Spanish newspaper, El Mundo Deportivo, reported this week that Lithuanian guard Sarunas Jasikevicius, who averaged 6.8 points in two years in the NBA, said he would be open to a comeback after a year in Greece. This was surprising because Jasikevicius, a star in Europe, seemed to be mostly unhappy during his time in the NBA.

His agent, Doug Neustadt, told me that he has been talking with a few teams about bringing Jasikevicius back. The problem, though, is that Jasikevicius has a, “European escape clause,” in his contract. That means he has a small buyout, but only until July 15. Essentially, then, an NBA team would need to sign Jasikevicius by next week, and it’s probably too early in the free agency period for that to be realistic.

“We have feelers out there,” Neustadt said. “It’s something worth looking into. But he has options right now, in Europe. We’ll see how it all comes together.”

Single-minded

A source close to the negotiations told Sporting News that the Dallas Mavericks will sign forward James Singleton to a guaranteed one-year contract for the veteran’s minimum. There are paperwork issues holding up the deal, but the source says Dallas will sign Singleton, who is playing for the Mavs’ summer league team, in the coming days.

Singleton opted out of a contract with his Spanish League team, where he played last year after spending the two previous seasons as a reserve with the Clippers. He averaged 2.6 points in 112 games with L.A. Source: SportingNews.com