FRIDAY, 2:57pm: The deal is official, the team announced. The statement from the Sixers makes no mention of a corresponding move, so Philadelphia will carry 15 players plus Kirilenko on the Suspended List.
THURSDAY, 8:06am: The Sixers will sign former Heat camp invitee Larry Drew II to a 10-day contract, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Philadelphia has 15 players, but the team won’t have to make a corresponding move to add Drew, since Andrei Kirilenko is on the Suspended List. Drew has been playing with Miami’s D-League affiliate.
The deal will give the 24-year-old point guard a chance to make his NBA regular season debut. He’s spent time with the Heat during the last two preseasons only to end up on waivers before opening night. This year’s preseason stint was only a five-day affair, as Miami signed him in late October, but his contract included a $25K partial guarantee, likely an enticement for Drew to join the Heat’s D-League team once he hit waivers. He’s averaged 11.0 points in 37.5 minutes per game while putting up an impressive 10.1 assists per contest to go with 40.4% three-point shooting in 21 appearances this season for the Sioux Falls Skyforce.
Drew remained free to sign with any NBA team even as he played for the Heat’s affiliate, and it appears the Sixers are snapping him up. The son of Cavs assistant coach Larry Drew, the former Bucks and Hawks head coach, is poised to become the first player the Sixers sign to a 10-day contract this year after they inked a league-high five players to 10-day deals in 2013/14, as our 10-Day Contract Tracker shows.