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Atlantic Notes: Harris, Udoka, Irving, Vaughn, Achiuwa

November 9th, 2022 at 9:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Sixers forward Tobias Harris is seeing his role change again after a recent injury to James Harden, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. With Harden sidelined for about a month, Harris is being asked to carry more of the scoring load.

“Evolving into what the situation is when presented,” Harris said. “Sometimes that is going to be a space on the floor. And obviously at times, it’s limited play calls. But you just find other ways to adapt.”

Harris is averaging 15.0 PPG through 11 games this season, but that number has risen to 22.0 in the two games without Harden. He’s also taking on more play-making duties, setting up teammates for open three-point shots with drives to the basket.

“I’ve always prided myself on being a very good team basketball player in the half-court offense,” Harris said. “That’s something I was always able to do and be a part of.”

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

  • Nets general manager Sean Marks refused to provide details when asked before tonight’s game why the team didn’t hire Ime Udoka, tweets Alex Schiffer of The Athletic. Marks also said there’s no update on Kyrie Irving‘s suspension, adding that he hasn’t talked directly with Irving, only to his representatives. Jacque Vaughn also said he hasn’t spoken to Irving (Twitter link). Vaughn explained that he wasn’t sure about his role in the Irving scenario while he was an interim coach, but that could change now that he’s been officially hired.
  • Because he’s only signed through the 2023/24 season, Vaughn is effectively undergoing an “audition” for a longer-term role with the Nets, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link). Wojnarowski adds that if management is happy with the job Vaughn does, he could get an extension at the end of the season. Woj also addresses Irving’s suspension, saying “there’s still a lot in play” regarding when he might return.
  • Raptors coach Nick Nurse is emphasizing defense to Precious Achiuwa, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet. Nurse had a one-on-one film session with Achiuwa today, showing him defensive mistakes that he made. Nurse projected Achiuwa to play 25 to 30 minutes per night before the season began, but said he has to become more reliable defensively for that to happen.
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Doc Shouldn't Take Fall For Slow Start

November 8th, 2022 at 6:17pm CST by Dana Gauruder
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Joel Embiid May Be Ready To Return From Illness

November 7th, 2022 at 8:03am CST by Arthur Hill
  • Sixers coach Doc Rivers believes there’s a “75% chance” Joel Embiid will return tonight after missing three straight games with an illness, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “He looked good,” Rivers said after watching Embiid at Sunday’s practice. “I mean listen, he had the flu and it’s hard. Your lungs are burning and he [still] looked pretty good.” Rivers plans to run the offense through Embiid while James Harden is sidelined with a strained tendon in his right foot. Harden is wearing a walking boot, and the foot is currently non-weight-bearing, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Williams, Hauser, Randle, Toppin

November 6th, 2022 at 3:44pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Sixers are striving to balance their need to win now with their focus on keeping All-NBA center Joel Embiid, currently dealing with an illness, healthy deeper into the season, writes Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.

Embiid most recently tried to play on Friday against the Knicks, but ultimately left the floor about 15 minutes ahead of tip-off. The club lost to New York and fell to 4-6 on the season.

“Watching him in shootaround, I thought he was really struggling,” head coach Doc Rivers said of Embiid. “Showed up, went out on the floor, got shots, and just felt bad… Obviously, we want to win the game, and putting him on the floor would obviously help us. But we got to also think of the long game as well, and so I thought it was the right decision not to play him.” 

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Celtics center Robert Williams III, ruled out for eight-to-12 weeks while he recovers from left knee surgery, is inching closer to a return for Boston, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “It feels great just getting back on the court, to be honest, man,” Williams said. “I need them just like they need me.” Last year for Boston, Williams was looking like a possible Defensive Player of the Year candidate before being waylaid by his knee.
  • Celtics star wing Jaylen Brown applauded the on-court development of sharpshooting reserve forward Sam Hauser, writes Jay King of The Athletic. Hauser has proven himself to be a key floor-spacing option. In lineups where All-Star forward Jayson Tatum is surrounded by reserve shooters Hauser, Malcolm Brogdon and Grant Williams, Boston’s offense has scored 131.9 points per 100 possessions, writes King. “Sam is lights out,” Brown said. “You can’t leave him. We’re looking for him. Once he hit a couple, we’re looking for him, and Sam is always ready. He works hard, and he’s developing a nice role for himself in this league.” Through nine games for Boston so far, Hauser is averaging 6.4 PPG on .571/.548/.500 shooting splits in 13.1 MPG.
  • Though the Knicks‘ attempt to pair power forwards Julius Randle and Obi Toppin in select minutes during a recent loss to the Celtics didn’t work out particularly well, the duo remains optimistic that it can be effective, per Peter Botte of The New York Post. “I think we played good,” Toppin opined. “We’ve just got to come back with a lot more energy and a lot more fight next game.” Randle also spoke positively about the grouping: “I love it. Play fast, spacing on the floor, obviously, on the offensive end. Being able to switch. The biggest thing is with that group is we just have to rebound. I think that’s the one thing, even when he’s not out there, it’s not a 4 and 5. I think we clean up our rebounding and we’ll be fine.”
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Nets Notes: Simmons, Clifford, Irving, NBPA, Durant

November 5th, 2022 at 10:05pm CST by Arthur Hill

Ben Simmons missed the Nets‘ last four games with a knee problem, but the mental health issues that contributed to his 16-month absence appear to be under control. In an interview with Konrad Marshall of The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, Simmons said being traded to Brooklyn in February gave him a much-needed fresh start.

“I had a terrible year,” he said, “so I know how to handle my emotions and what I need to be doing to get on track. If I’m worried or sad or frustrated or angry, I feel like I’m better able to deal with that now. It took time, but I’m at peace with who I am and what’s going on around me. I know what my priorities are, and what I need to do every day. Besides that, I just want to be me.”

Simmons admits a degree of responsibility for everything that went wrong when he was with the Sixers, but he feels like he didn’t have the support of team leaders. He refers to coach Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid and their failure to defend him after losing a series to the Hawks in 2021.

“I definitely didn’t handle it the right way after the season, but there’s two sides,” Simmons said. “Your teammates are supposed to have your back. Your coaches are supposed to have your back. And I didn’t have that at all.”

There’s more on the Nets:

  • Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, who spent last season as a consultant with the Nets, defended Steve Nash‘s performance in the face of difficult circumstances, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPN. Clifford pointed to the high number of missed games by key players last season and said he hopes Nash will visit Charlotte later this season to offer advice. “There’s always things you can do better as a coach, but the problem there was not coaching,” Clifford said. “Nor receptiveness to the way we did things. I totally disagree with any of that and sometimes it’s just health.” (Twitter link)
  • The players’ union plans to meet with Kyrie Irving to address his latest controversy, the Celtics’ Grant Williams, an NBPA vice president like Irving, told Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Lewis also talked to Wizards forward Deni Avdija, who’s believed to be the league’s only Jewish player, about Irving’s decision to promote an antisemitic film. “I think he [made] a mistake. But you need to understand that he gives [an] example to people. People look up to him,” Avdija said. “You can think whatever you want, you can do whatever you want. I don’t think it’s right to go out in public and publish it, and let little kids that follow you see it, and the generation to come after to think like that.”
  • The Nets have back-to-back road wins since Irving’s suspension was announced, and Kevin Durant suggested that sometimes the games can be a relief from other distractions, Lewis tweets. “Everybody was just waiting to get back to playing,” Durant said. “We also lost three or four games before that, so we just felt some pride and wanted to come out here and get some W’s. So it’s good for our character.”
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How Will Sixers Get By Without Harden?

November 5th, 2022 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams
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James Harden Suffers Foot Strain, Out One Month

November 3rd, 2022 at 1:47pm CST by Rory Maher

Star guard James Harden has sustained a strained tendon in his right foot and is expected to miss one month for the Sixers, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

It’s a tough blow for both the player and the team, as the Sixers have gotten off to a slow start, currently sitting with a 4-5 record after dropping Wednesday’s game to the Wizards. According to Wojnarowski, Harden suffered the foot strain during last night’s loss, with testing revealing the injury today.

A 10-time All-Star and former league MVP, Harden is averaging 22.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 10.0 assists and 1.1 steals on .441/.333/.929 shooting through nine games (36.8 minutes per contest). He’s also turning the ball over at his lowest rate since the 2011/12 campaign.

If Harden returns by Philadelphia’s game on December 5, he’ll have missed 14 games with the injury. As ESPN’s Tim Bontemps notes (via Twitter), it’s a difficult stretch of games for the 76ers, who face the Knicks, Suns, Hawks (twice), Jazz, Bucks and Timberwolves over their next seven contests.

With Harden sidelined, look for Joel Embiid (who has already missed three games, one with a sore knee and the past two with the flu), Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris to increase their shot attempts. Reserve guard De’Anthony Melton, who missed Wednesday’s contest with a sore back, will likely start in Harden’s place.

It will also be an opportunity for players like Shake Milton, Matisse Thybulle and Furkan Korkmaz to carve out potential rotation roles, since Harden is second in the team in minutes played, only trailing Maxey.

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Joel Embiid, De’Anthony Melton Out Wednesday For Sixers

November 2nd, 2022 at 4:55pm CST by Rory Maher

Sixers star center Joel Embiid will miss his second consecutive game against the Wizards on Wednesday with a non-COVID illness, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. According to head coach Doc Rivers, Embiid has the flu.

As Pompey notes, Embiid also missed Friday’s game vs. Toronto with right knee soreness, but returned during Saturday’s victory over the Bulls. In six games this season (34.5 MPG), the five-time All-Star is averaging 27.2 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 3.3 APG and 1.2 BPG on .532/.300/.788 shooting.

In addition to Embiid, Sixers guard De’Anthony Melton will also miss Wednesday’s game with back stiffness, and Matisse Thybulle will start in his place, tweets Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Melton, who was acquired in a trade with Memphis this offseason, had previously started the two games that Embiid was sidelined, with the Sixers opting to go small and sliding P.J. Tucker up to center. Melton performed well in both victories, and is averaging 9.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 2.3 APG and 2.0 SPG on .517/.407/1.000 shooting through eight games (22.5 MPG) in 2022/23.

The Sixers started the season 0-3, but have won four of their past five games to even their record at 4-4, while the Wizards have dropped three straight after guard Delon Wright suffered a strained hamstring and currently sit with a 3-4 record. Wednesday’s game has an unusually early tip off, beginning at 6:00pm ET.

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House Unconcerned About Reduced Minutes

October 31st, 2022 at 6:21pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Sixers were docked two second-round draft picks for holding early free agent discussions with forwards P.J. Tucker and Danuel House. The Knicks could be the next team to be penalized.

  • House has played 15 or fewer minutes over the past three games. He was signed to a two-year, $8.4MM contract this summer. The Sixers forward taking the minutes reduction in stride, Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. “It’s a team game, so I can’t really get too overwhelmed and too locked into myself,” House said. “There’s too much going on for me to be thinking of myself. You’ve just got to sit back and play the game.”
  • Sixers star Joel Embiid isn’t playing in Monday’s game against Washington due to a non-COVID illness, Ava Wallace of the Washington Post tweets.
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Sixers Lose 2023, 2024 Second-Round Picks Due To Gun-Jumping

October 31st, 2022 at 3:10pm CST by Rory Maher

After discovering that the Sixers held early free agent discussions with forwards P.J. Tucker and Danuel House prior to the permitted date, the NBA announced today (via Twitter) that it has rescinded the team’s 2023 and 2024 second-round picks.

The league noted that Philadelphia “fully cooperated” with its investigation into tampering, or “gun-jumping.” The Sixers released a statement confirming the news (Twitter link via ESPN’s Tim Bontemps).

“The Philadelphia 76ers fully cooperated with the NBA’s investigation and acknowledge the league’s ruling. We’re moving forward, focused on the season ahead.”

As Shams Charania of The Athletic notes (via Twitter), while the NBA did dock the Sixers for the early discussions with Tucker and House, it found no wrongdoing with James Harden‘s significant pay cut, which gave the Sixers the flexibility to use their full non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Tucker and their bi-annual exception to sign House. Both players previously played with Harden on the Rockets under former president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, who is now Philadelphia’s top basketball executive.

Some around the league have wondered whether the Sixers and Harden already have a future deal in place, which is against the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Such a handshake agreement would involve declining his player option in 2023 and signing a lucrative new contract at that time.

Marc Stein first reported that the Sixers were likely to face a tampering investigation, and he was also one of the first reporters to link Tucker to Philadelphia, with rival teams reportedly convinced that Tucker was signing a three-year deal for the mid-level multiple days before free agency officially opened.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), the NBA and the Players Association are expected to discuss tampering and the punishments that teams face when found guilty, as early free agent discussions are “rampant, but hard to police and largely impossible to eliminate.” The two sides are currently in early negotiations for a new CBA.

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