(Associated Press)

The trade deadline is here.

The 76ers have until 3 p.m. this afternoon to decide whether to cut ties with free-agents-to-be Evan Turner and Spencer Hawes, sell off Thaddeus Young and his one remaining year under contract plus a player option, or any conceivable configuration of the two. (The latest, it would seem, is an ESPN report that the Cavaliers are eying Hawes.)

What does Sixers coach Brett Brown think is going to happen?

“What I expect is nothing,” he said. “Every one of my years, this stuff has surfaced – and it’s to a greater level here – but it surfaces with San Antonio. We were very clandestine. We flew under the radar better than most. It inevitably, through the media, surfaces. It’s part of pro sport.

“I expect to wake up and coach the team I had the previous day. I think the stats and the facts confirm that opinion. Most times, this period of time is highly overblown.”

Brown’s involvement in roster moves for the Sixers is somewhat hands-off, he said at Wednesday’s practice. He said he leaves those goings-on to general manager Sam Hinkie. The two, Brown said, have a regular running dialogue, but the first-year coach said he and the Sixers’ ownership group trust Hinkie, the first-year GM.

“We talk all the time and, at the end of the day, I really trust Sam Hinkie’s judgment and I leave it with Sam,” Brown said. “My experience over the years is that not a lot happens. This is going to be left with Sam’s better judgment. This is why the club hired him. This is his strength. It doesn’t diminish communication at all.

“I’m in this for the long haul, and this is the first wave of a very long process. I coach this team, I enjoy coaching this team, I’m doing my very best to coach this team and we got up this morning, had a great, spirited session and life moves on.”

(Associated Press)

Thaddeus Young said he has not given too much thought to the trade rumors that surfaced over the weekend.

The Sixers were listed as a potential landing spot for Houston forward Omer Asik, an ESPN.com report by Marc Stein said. The Rockets, according to multiple reports, are trying to move Asik by Dec. 19, and Stein’s report said Young would be the return in any deal involving Asik.

“It is what it is. Just taking it day by day,” Young said, after the Sixers’ morning shootaround Monday. “I’m not worried about a trade or anything like that. It’s a business. If it happens, it happens. I just have to live with it, keep moving on it. At the end of the day, I’m here. I’m ready. I’m focused. I’m ready to go out here and think about the game tonight.”

“Not hard to keep focused. It’s basketball. It’s our job. It’s how we make our living. It’s how we make our money. It’s how we feed our families. At the end of the day, it is what it is if it happens. There’s nothing I can do about it. I definitely love Philly and want to continue being here. If they see fit to trade me, hey, my time is up. I have to move on.”

Young is in his seventh season with the Sixers, who drafted him 12th overall in 2007. Averaging 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds, the 6-8, 230-pound forward is making $8.6 million this season. He’s slotted to earn $9.1 million in 2014-15, with a player option of $9.7 million for the 2015-16 season.

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(Associated Press)

Evan Turner broached a topic Saturday on which he has no control.

“I'm not a GM,” the Sixers' third-year swingman said, when asked if he had given much thought to an ESPN report saying the Sixers were either shopping Turner or gauging his value on the trade market. “I think it all adds up to what a team needs. That's it. Whatever,” Turner said. “I think the best is yet to come – for me in general, wherever that occurs.”

Circuitously, Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo said he had no comment on the report, from ESPN's Marc Stein.

“I don't comment on any trade rumors,” DiLeo said. “We talk to every team in the league and we'll do something if it improves our team. I have no comment on any trade rumors.”

If the Sixers are hoping to shop Turner before the Feb. 21 trade deadline, his value is falling.
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