Could another All-Star power forward be coming to the rescue of an Eastern also-ran?

It sure seems that way. Last year it was Kevin Garnett reviving the Celtics, and this year it may be Elton Brand’s turn. With decision day coming this morning, a report by ESPN.com’s Marc Stein last night said Brand will leave the forlorn L.A. Clippers and accept a five-year deal from the Philadelphia 76ers that would immediately transform them into an Eastern Conference powerhouse.

Brand faced three alluring choices for where to spend the next half-decade, as he also had the option of returning to the Clippers or accepting an offer from the Golden State Warriors.

But the Clippers had to get a sinking feeling yesterday after hearing of the trade agreed to between the Sixers and Minnesota that would send Rodney Carney, Calvin Booth and a conditional first-round pick to the T’wolves. That deal amounts to a salary dump that clears enough space for Philly to up its offer to $82 million — more than the Clips could pay.

Moreover, one supposes they wouldn’t have done it unless Brand’s camp had signaled that it was worth their time — much as the Lakers did a decade ago when they jettisoned Anthony Peeler and George Lynch to Vancouver to make way for Shaquille O’Neal’s arrival.

If he leaves L.A., it would be a sea change from a week ago when Brand opted out of the final year of his contract that would have paid him $16.4 million. At the time, the supposition was that Brand opted out to create enough cap space for Baron Davis to sign with the Clippers, and that he’d then accept a lesser deal to stay with L.A. and team up with Davis.

But as the Cavaliers learned with Carlos Boozer four years ago, funny things can happen once a player is let loose on the open market. The Warriors and Sixers made things interesting by being able to offer even more money than Brand’s own team.

While this is a rare occurrence in the annals of NBA free agency, it came about because the Clippers committed a big chunk of their cap space to signing Davis, leaving only a five-year, $75 million deal on the table for Brand (Note: all these figures are contingent on where the salary cap is set by the league, which wasn’t announced until late Tuesday. I’ve assumed a figure around $59 million.)

Normally teams can use the Larry Bird Exception to sign their own players to a six-year deal that’s far more lucrative than any other team can offer — as Washington did last week with Gilbert Arenas. But because the Clippers aren’t over the salary cap, that exception isn’t available.

Instead, the Carney trade allowed Philly to offer Brand a five-year, $82 million deal that would fill a gaping hole at power forward and quickly establish the Sixers as one of the East’s rising powers.

Brand would join a young, talented roster that already includes the likes of Andre Iguodala, Sam Dalembert, Thaddeus Young, Louis Williams and Andre Miller. If the Sixers could just add a shooter to that mix they’d be legitimate threats to win the East as soon as this year, and with so much young talent on hand it’s easy to see them surpassing the older rosters of Boston and Detroit by 2010.

Because free agency is essentially a giant game of dominoes, where Brand went was of more than passing interest to two other players, Corey Maggette and Josh Smith. Those are the next two major free agents, so their fates were tied to Brand’s.

Having lost out on Brand, the Warriors reportedly reached a deal with Maggette, a high-scoring slasher who will have no problem fitting in with Golden State’s score-first, defend-later approach. The scary part is that the Warriors still have a ton of cap space remaining to go after yet another free agent, perhaps targeting Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor or Chicago’s Luol Deng.

Meanwhile, the Clippers seem likely to peg Smith as the recipient of an offer sheet in the hopes that he could fill the hole left by Brand’s departure at power forwards. Though he’s a very different type of player, he might thrive in the up-tempo environment that Davis favors, so the Clippers would make a big offer and hope the Hawks are scared off. If not, they’ll move on to the same Dengs and Okafors that Golden State is likely considering.

Meanwhile, other smaller pieces are also moving on the chessboard. The Knicks will complete their signing of Chris Duhon to a two-year deal for the midlevel exception, finally netting a pure point guard while maintaining their ability to get under the cap in 2010.

A few other teams will complete midlevel exception deals of their own. Two decent reserves, Beno Udih and DeSagana Diop, will inexplicably be about $38 million richer after Sacramento and Dallas, respectively, foolish opted to pay each the full midlevel exception. You’ll note the Nets wisely stayed far, far away from any bidding war to keep Diop. Another, wiser, move has Mickael Pietrus leaving Golden State and landing with the Magic, where he’ll take over as the starting shooting guard and defensive ace.

And of course, a few big guns already have deals in place that just need to be inked — Arenas’s $111 million whopper of a contract with Washington, and Davis’s $65 million deal with the Clippers that started this whole chain of events a week ago.

jhollinger@nysun.com