- The Sixers will be without All-Star center Joel Embiid, out multiple weeks with a bone bruise, prompting Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer to assess how the 76ers can adjust to temporary life on the floor without the big man. The team will have to lean on the scoring output of forward Tobias Harris and the passing and defensive acumen of All-Star guard Ben Simmons more than ever.
The Sixers got good news this morning about Joel Embiid‘s left knee, but there’s more to the story than the MRI results, writes Derek Bodner of The Athletic. Embiid is projected to miss two to three weeks with a bone bruise after a scary fall in Friday’s game.
Bodner estimates that April 3 is probably the earliest realistic date for Embiid to return, which will affect Philadelphia’s hopes for the top seed in the East. That would mean a 10-game absence, with eight of those games against teams with records of .500 or better. Losing Embiid could affect not only the playoff seedings, but also the MVP race and president of basketball operations Daryl Morey’s desire to make a major trade by the March 25 deadline.
An extended absence could affect Embiid’s next contract as well, Bodner adds. If Embiid makes an All-NBA team this season or in 2021/22, he will be eligible for a Designated Veteran Extension, which means his salary could start at 35% of the salary cap, rather than 30%.
There’s more on the Sixers:
- Morey gained a reputation for being aggressive at the trade deadline in Houston, but he’s cautioning Sixers fans not to count on a major deal this year, according to Dan Gelston of The Associated Press. Morey likes the cohesiveness of his current players, who are off to a 26-12 start. “We have a great group, a great chemistry, they’re playing at a high level, they play even better against very good teams,” he said. “That’s something fragile and we need to respect it. Long story short, everyone expecting some big thing, I would ask them to be excited about who we have more than what’s possible.”
- The Sixers are “loaded with assets” as they approach the trade deadline, ESPN’s Bobby Marks says in an Instagram video. They have an $8.29MM trade exception and seven players with expiring contracts. Marks expects Philadelphia to be in the mix for Andre Drummond, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kyle Lowry.
- Tobias Harris feels like he has something to prove after being overlooked for the All-Star Game, writes Noah Levick of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Harris wasn’t selected as a reserve even though he averaged 20.2 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in the first half of the season. “When me and (head coach Doc Rivers) talk about it, I just tell him, ‘Look, I’ve got a bounty out for all the coaches that didn’t vote for me, all the national media that skipped over me,’” Harris said. “It is what it is, but me and Doc discuss that you make your name known in the playoffs and leading this team, and being solid and what you do day in and day out. And that was my mentality.”
Sixers MVP candidate Joel Embiid is expected to miss 2-to-3 weeks after an MRI revealed a bone bruise in his left knee, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Embiid’s MRI revealed no structural damage to his knee and there is a feeling of relief within the Philadelphia organization that the superstar’s injury isn’t worse, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
The soon-to-be 27-year-old suffered the injury on Friday night during the Sixers’ tilt against the Wizards. Embiid hyperextended his left knee after landing awkwardly following a dunk in the third quarter. Embiid stayed down for several minutes before exiting under his own power, albeit with a noticeable limp.
Friday’s contest was Embiid’s first action since before the All-Star break as he – along with teammate Ben Simmons – was forced to sit out the star-studded contest due to contact tracing. Simmons and Embiid saw the same barber who later tested positive for COVID-19 and had to isolate.
While the injury might impact his MVP odds, Embiid has played like one all season for Philadelphia. In 31 games, he is averaging 29.9 PPG, 11.5 RPG, 3.3 APG, 1.4 BPG and is shooting 52.5% from the field.
- Speaking of the G League, the brief 2020/21 season came to an end on Thursday when the Lakeland Magic defeated the Delaware Blue Coats for this year’s NBAGL championship (link via The Associated Press). All the players under NBA contract who had been assigned to the G League bubble should now be headed back to their NBA teams, if they haven’t already rejoined them. That includes Lakeland’s Karim Mane (to the Magic) and Delaware’s Paul Reed and Isaiah Joe (to the Sixers).
Executives and scouts around the NBA view Rockets forward P.J. Tucker as a logical trade target for the Bucks, whose typically stout defense has fallen off a little this season, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of Bleacher Report. Tucker’s versatility and defensive ability make him a good fit in just about any system, which would make him an ideal option for a team looking to make a deep playoff run.
The execs and scouts who spoke to Blakely also think that the Nuggets will target a versatile frontcourt player and could see the Suns making a run at Andre Drummond if he reaches the buyout market.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- There’s still an expectation that the Tokyo Olympics will move forward as planned this summer, but a report from the Kyodo news agency suggested this week that foreign spectators won’t be permitted to attend (link via CBSNews.com). Team USA announced a list of 57 finalists for its men’s basketball squad today, which will need to be pared down to 12 for the Olympics.
- In his redraft of the 2019 class, John Hollinger of The Athletic leaves the first four picks (Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, RJ Barrett, and De’Andre Hunter) unchanged, but bumps Spurs forward Keldon Johnson all the way up from No. 29 to No. 5. Brandon Clarke (23rd to seventh), Talen Horton-Tucker (45th to 13th), and Luguentz Dort (undrafted to 15th) are among the other big risers, while Jarrett Culver (No. 6) and Jaxson Hayes (No. 8) would fall out of Hollinger’s top 20.
- In an Insider-only story for ESPN.com, Jonathan Givony takes a closer look at the NBA players who looked best on their G League assignments, including Raptors rookie Malachi Flynn, Sixers forward Paul Reed, and a pair of Rockets (Kevin Porter and KJ Martin). In a separate Insider-only piece, Givony and Mike Schmitz of ESPN take a closer look at which players in the 2021 draft class are the biggest risers (including Isaiah Jackson and Franz Wagner) and fallers (Ziaire Williams and David Johnson).
- Sixers coach Doc Rivers missed today’s practice because of illness and it’s uncertain if he’ll be able to coach tomorrow, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Rivers’ condition isn’t related to COVID-19.
Nuggets guard Will Barton is among the players the Sixers have inquired on as they seek another play-making wing, a source tells Jason Dumas of Bleacher Report.
Dumas also names Delon Wright, George Hill, and P.J. Tucker as potential trade targets for Philadelphia. He has previously reported on the 76ers’ inquiries into Wright and Hill, while the club’s interest in Tucker has been mentioned repeatedly elsewhere, including on Tuesday by Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer.
Barton, 30, is a key rotation player in Denver, averaging 11.6 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 3.1 APG on .442/.388/.755 shooting in 33 games (29.9 MPG). However, as Dumas observes, the veteran wing has seen his role cut back a little due to the ongoing emergence of Michael Porter Jr. Barton’s 18.3% usage rate is the lowest mark of his career.
Still, it may be hard for two teams in win-now mode to work out a trade that would benefit both clubs in the short term.
While Danny Green‘s expiring $15.4MM contract would match up well with Barton’s $13.7MM deal, it’s not clear if the Nuggets would have any interest in the 33-year-old sharpshooter, since they have no shortage of floor-spacers — nine of their 10 most-used players are shooting 36% or higher on three-pointers with at least one make per game (Gary Harris, at 32.0%, is the lone exception). And while Green is a solid defender, he lacks Barton’s play-making ability.
Whether or not they can strike a deal for Barton, the 76ers seem more focused on adding a complementary player than on making a splashier move for a star like Kyle Lowry, according to Dumas, who says that landing the Raptors‘ guard is considered “far-fetched.”
After having to miss the 2021 All-Star game Sunday due to potential COVID-19 exposure, Sixers stars Joel Embiid (voted an All-Star starter) and Ben Simmons (a reserve) will each be out for at least one regular season game, even if they continue to test negative for the novel coronavirus, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Embiid will have to isolate until Friday, meaning he will miss Philadelphia’s contest against the Bulls scheduled for Thursday, March 11. Simmons, meanwhile, is required to quarantine until at least Saturday. This will make Simmons a scratch against the Wizards in a Friday matchup, in addition to Thursday’s game vs. Chicago.
Charania tweets that both players were given seven-day quarantine windows following their interactions with their personal barber, who ultimately tested positive for COVID-19.
The two All-Stars had been enjoying tremendous years for the East-leading Sixers, currently 24-12. Embiid, 26, is having his best pro season to date en route to a fourth All-Star appearance. He is a leading MVP contender, averaging 30.2 PPG, 11.6 RPG and 3.3 APG, while shooting 52.1% from the field, including 41.6% from deep.
Simmons, 24, managed to make his third All-Star team with averages of 16.1 PPG, 7.9 RPG and 7.6 APG and stellar defense all over the court.
- Sixers coach Doc Rivers is concerned about how a condensed schedule will affect his team over the second half of the season, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The 76ers will play 36 games in 67 days as they try to hold onto the top spot in the East. “I would say (this) is not the way I wanted it for our team, you know, being so young,” Rivers said. “We are really young, actually look at the guys that are playing. To cut off practice time for a young team is usually not good.”
With the Rockets in the midst of a 13-game losing streak and their playoff chances dwindling, people around the NBA are wondering if general manager Rafael Stone will launch a full-scale rebuild this month in what could be a seller’s market, writes Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report.
One rival scout told Fischer that he keeps hearing the Rockets will hold a “fire sale” prior to this year’s deadline, while an assistant general manager predicted that the club will “burn the house down.” Another assistant GM told Bleacher Report that Houston has been starting to call teams about deals.
The Rockets haven’t had a sub-.500 season since 2005/06 and it’s unclear whether team owner Tilman Fertitta would have the patience for a multiyear rebuild. As Fischer explains, Houston still had playoff aspirations when it traded James Harden to Brooklyn in January — the decision to flip Caris LeVert for Victor Oladipo in that blockbuster deal was made in part due to the club’s belief that Oladipo would make more of an impact in the postseason race.
However, the Rockets also have incentive not to try to fight their way back up the standings, as their first-round pick will be swapped with either the Thunder’s or Heat’s pick (whichever is worse) if it doesn’t land in the top four. Even a last-place finish won’t guarantee that the Rockets hang onto their own first-rounder, but the lower they finish, the better their odds are of hanging onto a top pick that could help them secure a long-term franchise cornerstone.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Fischer suggests that if the Rockets hang onto Oladipo through the trade deadline, a sign-and-trade deal in the offseason appears to be the most likely outcome. “They’re too smart to just whiff and get nothing off of him,” a Western Conference official said. Still, getting anything of value in a sign-and-trade would hinge on Oladipo wanting to join a team that doesn’t have the cap room available to sign him outright.
- The Sixers are on a long list of potential suitors for P.J. Tucker, according to Fischer, who says the veteran forward would welcome the opportunity to join a 76ers team led by former Rockets GM Daryl Morey. League sources tell Bleacher Report that Houston could’ve gotten a late first-round pick from the Timberwolves in the 2020 draft for Tucker, but the team will be hard-pressed to get that strong a return now, since the 35-year-old has had a down year. “If they had a first for him now, he’d already be gone,” one GM said.
- Fischer adds that there has been a “long-whispered rumor” that the Nets and Rockets could make a swap involving Tucker and Spencer Dinwiddie. According to Fischer, wherever Tucker ends up, he’ll be looking for one last lucrative contract in the offseason, having turned down a two-year extension from the Rockets earlier in the season.
- There’s little expectation that the Rockets will trade Eric Gordon, sources tell Fischer. However, clubs may target some of the team’s other, more affordable wings, including Sterling Brown, Danuel House, Ben McLemore, and Jae’Sean Tate.