Sixers waive Christmas, Bowman, whittle roster down to 13

Yes, we do have a basketball team in Philadelphia. And, yes, they are playing preseason games right now. The Sixers have been pushed to a distant 4th in this town, behind the magical Phillies run, the drama surrounding the Eagles and the excitement behind the Flyers, but they have had a solid preseason so far and look like they could be improved under new coach Eddie Jordan.

With the season set to begin in about 2 weeks, the Sixers have made some moves to get their roster ready, waiving guard Dionte Christmas and forward Brandon Bowman. Both players were long shots to earn a roster spot, but I thought Christmas, who is an undrafted rookie out of Temple, had done enough to earn a spot on a team that seems pretty thin at the guard position. Bowman, who graduated from Georgetown in 2006, never seemed likely to crack the Sixers due to their depth at forward.

With these moves, the Sixers roster currently sits at 13 players. The team will need to make one more move to get down to 12, although they will likely just put one player on the injured list since there isn't an obvious cut in the bunch.

Here is the Sixers current roster:

Guards:
Jrue Holiday
Andre Iguodala
Willie Green
Lou Williams
Royal Ivey

Forwards:
Elton Brand
Thaddeus Young
Jason Kapono
Marreese Speights
Jason Smith
Rodney Carney

Centers:
Samuel Dalembert
Primoz Brezec