Injuries add to challenges facing the 76ers
The 76ers' short-term challenge is to upset Oklahoma City in the season-opener Wednesday without their first overall pick, their starting point guard, their top rim protector, and maybe their best three-point shooter.
The 76ers' short-term challenge is to upset Oklahoma City in the season-opener Wednesday without their first overall pick, their starting point guard, their top rim protector, and maybe their best three-point shooter.
Their long-term task is perhaps more frightening.
They must find a way to overcome their injuries and hold things together so they're not once again in the NBA basement.
Yet it seems likely that they will, once again, be the league's last-place team.
Ben Simmons won't make his NBA debut Wednesday because of a Jones fracture in his right foot. If his rehabilitation goes well, he might return in January. But no one will be surprised if the first overall pick misses the entire season.
Nerlens Noel is scheduled to have surgery Monday at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York to address the inflamed plica located above his left knee. Surgeon Riley Williams will scope the area during a 10-minute procedure. Noel, who has been sidelined since Oct. 6, is expected to be out an additional three to five weeks. The team will know more after the surgery.
Jerryd Bayless has ligament damage in his left wrist. The Sixers will re-evaluate the point guard's injury in two weeks. Simmons is regarded as the franchise player, but Bayless is so vital to the team's success that it signed the free-agent acquisition to a three-year, $27 million contract in July.
It's unknown whether Robert Covington will play against the Thunder after sitting out the second half of Friday's exhibition game at Miami with a sprained right ankle. The team said it will have more information Sunday about the sharpshooter.
Yes, this has all the signs of another dreadful season for the Sixers. And it could be ugly from the start.
For proof: How do you like Wednesday's potential Russell Westbrook-vs.-Sergio Rodriguez point-guard matchup?
At the start of training camp, the thought was that Rodriguez would be, at best, the third primary ball handler behind point forward Simmons and Bayless. While he's a flashy passer, the Spaniard is a defensive liability against Westbrook and the NBA's other elite guards. Rodriguez is also an inconsistent shooter.
Second-year player T.J. McConnell is the other option at point guard. He's a better shooter and defender than Rodriguez, but he tends to play better in a reserve role.
The Sixers have been engaged in trade talks with Minnesota for point guard Tyus Jones, according to the Vertical, but he's not necessarily the answer to the Sixers' woes. At best, he's a backup point guard for most teams at this stage on his career. But he does have a solid upside.
Simmons was supposed to provide the excitement with his passes and court awareness from his forward position this season.
"We have the goal of continuing to advance this team in many different ways, and this organization in many different ways," said Bryan Colangelo, the team's president of basketball operations. "Ben is clearly a big part of that future, but that all has been put on hold for the time being as it relates to this overall process of building."
Colangelo made a point to say that the Sixers are "building" instead of "rebuilding." In the process, he said, the Sixers will deal with the reality confronting them. As a result, Colangelo doesn't want this season's success to be measured by the number of wins. In his words, it should be measured by "progress."
"Timing is everything," Colangelo said. "Injuries have played a part of some of the things that we're looking at as we speak, but, again, lots of positives. . . . It's all coming. It will be a time and some of that is unknown of when it arrives."
It definitely won't be this season.
The Sixers could struggle to win seven games through December. That's why they're considering ways to upgrade the talent level on the roster.
The Timberwolves are open to trading Jones, who is in his second year. Minutes will be hard to get for him in Minnesota with Kris Dunn, Ricky Rubio, and John Lucas III. But he could provide value to another team as a backup point guard.
Jones was the NBA Summer League's most valuable player. The 24th overall pick of the 2014 draft is also a good friend of Sixers reserve center Jahlil Okafor, his former Duke teammate. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.9 assists in 15.5 minutes in 37 games last season.
"Hopefully soon enough there will be some clarity there," Colangelo said of the timetable for the return of Simmons and Bayless. "And that may dictate what we look for to shore up that position, because it is something that is clearly affecting us right now."
@PompeyOnSixers