The right ankle injury 76ers forward Thaddeus Young sustained in the first quarter of Tuesday night’s victory over the Atlanta Hawks is severe enough to keep him out 2 to 3 weeks, the Sixers said.
Young’s ankle bent at a grotesque angle when he went up to block a shot by the Hawks’ Josh Smith and his foot came down on Smith’s. X-rays were negative, but the results of an MRI show a right ankle sprain and bone bruise, according to Dr. Jack McPhilemy.
Young is on crutches and also wearing an air cast.
"I spoke to Thad at halftime (of the Atlanta game)," coach Tony DiLeo said at practice earlier today. "He was down. He’s been playing at a high level. He’s just disappointed, and a little apprehensive.”
President/general manager Ed Stefanski said he spoke to Young today and “his spirits were good,” all things considered.
“The turning of the ankle, the severity of it … we forget, he’s 20 years old. He was shook up (because) he hasn’t been hurt before.
“But there was no fracture, which was great. Now we just have to see how long he’ll be out.”
With only nine games remaining in the regular season, DiLeo and Stefanski not only have to consider ramifications in the short term -- such as, who takes Young’s place in the starting lineup? -- but over the slightly longer haul.
“If Thad is out for any kind of period, it probably would make sense to bring someone in who is at that swing position,” said Stefanski, noting that the 6-8 Young, a second-year NBA player out of Georgia Tech, not only has been starting at the 4 (power forward) but logging some minutes at the 3 (small forward).
“We’ve been scouting the NBDL (National Basketball Development League) all year. Guys are out there. We have a lit that we keep reviewing.”
With Young out, the Sixers went to a bigger lineup most of the way against the Hawks. Rookie Marreese Speights, with 16 points in – minutes, had his highest-scoring game since he went off for 24 points against Phoenix on Feb. 9. Reggie Evans and Theo Ratliff also played well off the bench.
So who fills in for Young at the opening tip tomorrow night?
“We haven’t decided yet,” DiLeo said, before acknowledging that “basically, we know. We just don’t want to put it out there yet.”
Speights, though, seems to be the logical choice based on his strong performance against Atlanta.
“I like last night’s game because (Speights) got minutes, he produced, he got his confidence back,” DiLeo said. “I think he’ll be a big contributor coming down the stretch, especially with Thad out.”
He was playing great. This is a big loss. More minutes for Speights. Hope Marshall gets some time while Young is out.— 76er- Why is he out "likely much longer?" If the results of the MRI aren't known, what indicates how long he will be out?— drjimmy
- I am tired of hearing people talk about how long Young will be out. If its just a sprained ankle with no ligament damage, and we have no reason to believe its more then that yet, he should be back no later then the play-offs. To me the remaining winnable games on this schedule are still winnable if they can get good production from the combination of Speights and Evans. Lets relax on the Young situation until we know better.— brannigan73
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- goodbye to a chance at the 5 seed.— mjb
- Hopefully this will get DiLeo to finally get Speights the minutes he should. The highest upside for this team anyway - Young or no Young - is a first round win so what's the point of not playing someone who could be key to your future.— dinsdale
- Philly Will be Just Fine....Young Will Be Fine.. Just Chill— jaydes
- Why would you say goodbye to the fifth seed? Do you really think losing Thaddeus Young means we can't beat teams like Milwaukee, Detroit, New Jersey, Charlotte, Toronto, and Chicago? Those are all winnable games with or without Thaddeus Young. Now if he can't play in the play-offs it doesn't matter what seed they get because they can't win against a team like Atlanta without him but the closing schedule is very manageable outside of the two Cleveland and Boston games if the can patch the line-up with Speights and Evans. As much as I love Thaddeus the two best players on this team, by far if you are into advanced statistics like per, are Andre Igoudala and Andre Miller.— brannigan73
- Is PSU alum Geary Claxton still with Erie in the NBDL? It'd be cool to have a Nittany Lion on the Sixer roster again. LOL.— mdriban
- Do people still watch the NBA? Sorry, I was too distracted by college basketball, which is about a million times better.— chrissmith
- we can kiss the nba championship trophy goodbye now... we should see what derrick coleman is up too.— phillyPHANaddict
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Bob Cooney has been at the Daily News for more than 20 years, working in the sports department for the past 15. This is his third season on the Sixers beat. He has covered just about everything, but mostly college basketball, where he was the La Salle beat writer for six seasons. E-mail Bob at cooneyb@phillynews.com and follow him on Twitter.
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