Sixers Notes: Report: Sixers exploring trade of Evan Turner
A report on ESPN.com early Saturday said that the 76ers were exploring potential trade options involving small forward Evan Turner.
A report on ESPN.com early Saturday said that the 76ers were exploring potential trade options involving small forward Evan Turner.
Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo did not comment on the report.
Turner, however, discussed it.
"I'm not a GM, so I really don't know [my trade value]," Turner said. "I think it's all about what our team needs, and that's it. Whatever. I think that the best is yet to come with me in general, wherever it occurs."
Turner is making $5.3 million this season. In October, the Sixers picked up his $6.7 million option for next season. Turner did not say he'd be opposed to a trade.
"It's not my choice to be traded or not, you know?" Turner said. "So if it happens, it happens. . . . What I want doesn't matter. If it did, life would be way different."
Homecoming
As he sat in his locker stall prior to his first game back home, Charlotte Hornets rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist did not have the look of someone still shaking off the effects of a recent concussion.
No, this time Gilchrist, who just finished doing an interview with a reporter from a Kentucky University basketball website, was dealing with something else.
"I'm a little bit nervous right now," said Kidd-Gilchrist, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2012 draft who grew up in Somerdale. "I've got about two- or three-hundred people here to see me."
Kidd-Gilchrist then paused, smiled, and continued.
"But this is fun," he said of his return home. "I used to come here to see [Allen Iverson] when I was young. I've got my mom here and my family watching me. This is great."
Kidd-Gilchrist missed a pair of games after suffering a concussion in the fourth quarter of a loss to Houston last week. Averaging 9.5 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.0 blocks, he returned to the court Friday, just in time to be a part of the Bobcats' blowing a 20-point second-half lead at home in a 100-93 loss to the Lakers.
Kidd-Gilchrist is one of three Philly-area players on the Bobcats. Episcopal Academy's Gerald Henderson starts alongside Kidd-Gilchrist and is averaging 12.7 points and 3.5 rebounds. Friends' Central's Hakim Warrick averages 6.9 points and 3.2 minutes off the bench.
The Bobcats came into Saturday's contest on a six-game losing streak and sporting the worst record in the league (11-38).