Ed Stefanski has brokered a deal with his first-round pick. I quote Steve Karp from the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Shortly before he drafted Marreese Speights with the 16th overall pick in last month’s NBA Draft, Philadelphia 76ers president and general manager Ed Stefanski decided it was time to make a pact with the 6-foot-10-inch forward from the University of Florida.

Not a financial deal but a philosophical one.

It was fairly simple: Speights would play hard every time he stepped onto the court, then come over to Stefanski, look him in the eye, shake his hand and let him know he gave his best effort.

That might sound corny. But Stefanski’s point was to let Speights know he can be a great player if he’s willing to work at it.

At first glance, this sounds great. Since he left the Gators, Mo has averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds in 5 NBA Summer League games. Topping it off, he’s averaging 33 minutes per contest; at UF, he clocked 33 only once in his career - a February 5 loss at Tennessee. That he’s getting close to 20 and 10 attests to his potential.

But there are issues. Because there are no financial strings attached in college, a benching or reduced playing times carries a lot of weight for a star player.

Because of the way the rookie pay scale is structured in the NBA, Mo will likely be underpaid for his services for three or four years, even if he plays at a level comparable to Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, or Kevin Garnett. For a young player looking to get a higher contract, this may be a setback.

Also, due to playing relatively reduced minutes in his first few years, he might get snubbed for a plethora of awards given to young rookies: A berth in the Rookies-Sophomores game, Rookie of the Month, and yes, Rookie of the Year. Mo will need a lot of confidence in his abilities if he is to make this work.

And on a broader level, there is no way of telling what his ceiling really is. Speights can have Al Horford-like numbers (Refresher course: 10.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks a game) and take the center spot over Samuel Dalembert, but if he doesn’t have to work for it, where does that leave his pact?

We homers can predict that he won’t do as well, but who knows? He could be scary if he works hard, but might Mo be scared of his own potential greatness? Being a franchise player is a big responsibility, but it’s not implausible.

Bottom line: Stefanski needs a lot of faith, and Speights a lot of heart for this to work. I do not work for the Sixers, and I don’t know what’s going on, so I won’t make some premature predictions for how the deal will end up.

Nevertheless, it’s a high risk/high reward proposition.