(AP)

The 76ers have traded center Spencer Hawes to Cleveland, according to multiple reports.

Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report the trade Thursday morning, the day of the NBA trade deadline. Wojnarowski reported that the Sixers will receive two 2014 second-round picks, forward Earl Clark and center Henry Sims from the Cavaliers in return for Hawes.

Clark has a $4.25 million team option for next season, and Sims has nothing beyond this season, so the Sixers could financially cut ties with both at the end of this season.

Later in the day, the Sixers got two second-round picks (for an undisclosed draft year) and guard Eric Maynor from Washington in a three-team deal, that also included Denver, in which the Sixers gave up nothing significant. (It'll probably amount to cash.) Maynor has a $2.1 million player option for next season.

Hawes, traded to the Sixers from Sacramento in June 2010, spent nearly four seasons with the team. His two-year deal was set to expire at the end of the season.

The Sixers' initial interest in moving Hawes was to attain a first-round pick in return. As the trade deadline neared, it can only be assumed that Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie lowered his asking price to help facilitate a move.

More on this to come...

(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.”

(AP)

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, Nick Young had two items on his agenda.

He had to undergo an MRI on his left knee, which turned up news that the Los Angeles Lakers guard stands to miss at least the next two weeks. Then, Young went to the King of Prussia Mall. Since Young, who played for the 76ers last season, cannot play against his old team Friday, he opted for the next best thing.

“I want to go out there and play against them, talk some trash to Spencer (Hawes) and Evan (Turner) and Thad (Young) and have some fun. That’s the downside,” Young said. “But I went and got a suit jacket because I still want to be out there and talk some trash. I’m looking forward to it.”

Young came to Philly under the auspices of a season that never came to fruition. He, Dorell Wright and Jason Richardson were brought aboard as shooters with which the Sixers would surround Andrew Bynum. But Bynum, beset by knee injuries, never played. And Young, who was given a one-year, $5.6 million deal, never lived up to the expectations created by his financially bulky contract.

The Los Angeles native, Young took a one-year contract worth $1.1 million from the Lakers. He has a player option for next season that he’s likely to pick up.

“Being able to play at home and for the Lakers is great,” said Young, who’s out for at least two weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his left knee cap. “I was seeing my options, but I was looking at the Lakers and the opportunity that was going to be there for me. Playing for them and being home, I couldn’t ask for better.”

Young has experienced a career renaissance with the Lakers, for whom he’s averaging 16.9 points (second behind Pau Gasol) on 41.9 percent shooting.

With the Sixers, under Doug Collins, he was an on-again, off-again personality. He was Swaggy P, an affable, congenial player who was always smiling. Some days, he was liked. Others, he was not. Some days, he was playing in crunch time and contributing. Others, he was coming off the bench only when the game was out of reach.

“Philly was good. It had its ups and downs,” Young said. “Obviously I wish I played more. But the city and how they embraced the Swaggy P Movement, I didn’t know they were going to be big on it, but they enjoyed it.”

Young played only eight of his final 25 games last season with the Sixers. The other 17 were DNP-CDs.

“Just sitting there and watching it, it’s hard. It was hard for me,” Young said. “I didn’t know why I wasn’t playing. (The Sixers) were bringing in players from the D-League and they were playing over me. It ain’t like I cussed (Collins) out or nothing. I was just sitting and waiting. But Doug hits me up from time to time. He texts me. He says he’s proud of me and stuff.”

In Young’s words, last season “is what it is.” And, Young said, it could have been different.

“Drew never got a chance to play. I know the fans were going crazy over that,” he said. “But what shocked me was this year. I had no idea they were going to trade Jrue Holiday, but obviously they’ve seen something in Carter that no one else did.”

That would be Michael Carter-Williams, Holiday’s successor as the Sixers’ point guard. Young will get a good look at the rookie. Only, it’ll have to come from the Lakers’ bench.

(AP)

DENVER – In the thin air of the Mile High City, 76ers coach Brett Brown ran Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young ragged. Both played 40 minutes Wednesday, in the Sixers’ 114-102 win over the Nuggets, the first game of a back-to-back nights scenario.

Brown likely will have to get creative tonight in Sacramento and Saturday in Portland, with how he doles out minutes as his team concludes its West Coast road trip. The coach got a sampling of that against the Nuggets, when he had to juggle rotations with Michael Carter-Williams and Spencer Hawes in foul trouble throughout the night.

The result: some good stuff.

Lavoy Allen, pictured, with 12 points, turned in a season-best scoring effort. James Anderson, who had 12 points and four boards, was big in the fastbreak game and on the defensive end. Even Elliot Williams, who only flashed onto the court for seven-plus minutes, provided pleasant play.

“We have some depth,” Brown said. “I was nervous. I was going too long with Spencer, even with two fouls, and that’s a dangerous decision. We persevered with that. I couldn’t get him out sooner, and Lavoy came in. Then you start looking around at who was tired. I ran Thaddeus and Evan into the ground in the first period. … Elliot came in and gave us a burst. James came in and continued to play really well. I feel, what I learned is, we have depth. We’re cultivating depth. We’re growing young players who are able to come in and play NBA games and do well.”

*****

Two editorial notes here: 1. I won’t be following the Sixers on their final two stops on the road trip. Instead, I’ll be in Denver tonight and Phoenix Saturday, for the Flyers’ games out this way. 2. My apologies for the look of the blog. The smart, computer people tell me the site is getting a redesign of sorts, and it’ll be back to normal soon.

(AP)

The Portland Trail Blazers brought to Philly a familiar face, in Dorell Wright.

Wright, who spent last season with the 76ers, got a two-year, $6 million deal in the summer from Portland. That’s a pay cut for the 10^th-year swingman, who made more than $4 million for his work with the 2012-13 Sixers.

Still, it’s more than the Sixers were willing to offer Wright, who averaged 9.2 points and shot 39.6 percent last season.

“There was nothing,” Wright said.

That being said, the grass in the Rose City isn’t always greener. Wright, who’s playing with an unspecified bench role for the Western Conference-leading Blazers, is averaging fewer minutes (14.2) than all but one season in his career. He’s averaging 4.9 points and 2.5 rebounds in 23 appearances, with zero starts. Also, he’s shooting 34.9 percent from 3-point range – his lowest total from beyond the arc since 2006-07.

“But we’re winning,” Wright said. “I don’t give a damn how many minutes (I’m playing) as long as we’re winning. I could care less if I was playing 40 minutes a night on a losing team. That don’t make no sense. The ultimate goal at the end of the day is to win. That’s what we’re doing, and I’m happy with my role, I’m happy with this team.”

Wright said he’s stayed in touch with current Sixers Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Arnett Moultrie, as well as deposed coach Doug Collins. Wright has no regrets from his one season with the Sixers, a team of shooters assembled around anticipated centerpiece Andrew Bynum.

“When that put the team in, as far as the different pieces, it didn’t work out with all the different injuries,” Wright said. “I still looked at it as me going out there each and every night and leaving it out there on the court. I’m not looking at it just as, ‘I’m here for a year,’ or whatever it was. I wanted to be back. You always want to be in a city as long as you can. They had other plans, as far as going young and rebuilding. I had other plans, as far as going to a different team and getting to the playoffs. I haven’t been the last couple years.”

(Associated Press)

Thaddeus Young expects to be in the 76ers’ starting lineup, and Spencer Hawes is “hoping to” get clearance to play Friday night against visiting New Orleans.

Young, who returned to the team in Wednesday’s loss at Orlando, came off the bench in that game. It was his first appearance in four games, after being away since Nov. 18 for personal reasons. Young hadn’t come off the bench for the Sixers since May 26, 2012, in an Eastern Conference semifinal series against Boston.

“Probably going to be back in the starting lineup tonight,” Young said at Friday morning’s shootaround. “(Being a reserve) is not something I want to go back to. I’d rather start games off in the game. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back out there, getting in the flow of the game.”

Hawes has missed two straight with left knee soreness. He said he hasn’t had an MRI on the knee, which he tweaked a week ago against Milwaukee, but said he “felt pretty much normal” while running around at the morning shootaround.

“I’ll go through the stuff before the game and, if it’s OK, I’m ready to go,” Hawes said. “Sitting out is the worst. They are good seats, but it’s a terrible feeling. You want to be out there with your teammates.”