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Sixers Notes: Marshall, Smith, Embiid, Brown

January 20th, 2016 at 11:49am CST by Chuck Myron

Nobody in Kendall Marshall‘s camp thought he would be ready for opening night, as Sixers GM Sam Hinkie predicted he would be, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, speaking in his latest “The Vertical” podcast (audio link, scroll to six-minute mark). Another team that considered signing Marshall this past summer told the point guard that it didn’t envision him returning to play from his torn ACL before January 1st, so Wojnarowski expressed surprise when Sixers coach and podcast guest Brett Brown said he, like Hinkie, thought Marshall would be ready for the start of the regular season. Marshall made his season debut December 11th after signing a four-year, $8MM contract that represents Philly’s largest free agent contract since Hinkie joined the team. See more on the Sixers from Brown’s conversation with Wojnarowski:

Brown believes the arrival via trade of point guard Ish Smith, who’s taken the starting job from Marshall, is directly related to the relative success the club has had since, adding that the unsettled point guard situation prior to that made it tougher to fuse Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel into an effective on-court duo. “I think it caught everybody off-guard to have to figure out that position with some of the young guys and sort of journeymen that we did,” Brown said to Wojnarowski (scroll to five-minute mark). “I think it no doubt hurt us.”
Hinkie and Brown were in agreement that it was worth it to draft an already-injured Joel Embiid at No. 3 overall in 2014, Brown told Wojnarowski in remarks that made it clear the coach hasn’t lost faith in the center’s potential. “I feel there is something uniquely special in him,” Brown said (scroll to 55-minute mark). “… I look at him, and I see his size, and I see how he carries himself, and I see [an] amazing competitor in all of it. So we get excited for Joel Embiid, no doubt.”
The coach admitted to Wojnarowski that the team’s rebuilding project has persisted longer than he imagined when he first took the job in 2013 (scroll to 12-minute mark) and explained how he ended negotiations with the Sixers for a brief time at that point when the team was hesitant to give him a four-year deal (scroll to 49-minute mark). Brown signed an extension in December that tacks two additional years onto the contract.

Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Ujiri, D-League

January 13th, 2016 at 8:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Raptors are currently enjoying one of the most successful runs in franchise history and GM Masai Ujiri needs to capitalize on that momentum by swinging for the fences at the trade deadline this season, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes. The most effective way to add to the team’s core would be to use the team’s surplus of first round picks, four in the next two years, which could land an impact player, Grange notes. The Sportsnet scribe does acknowledge the team may face stiff competition to re-sign future unrestricted free agent DeMar DeRozan, and building around him could be a risky proposition as a result, but it would be folly for the team to not go all in this season and shoot for the stars in the trade market.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Joel Embiid‘s hiring of Leon Rose as his new agent is a positive move for the Sixers, Jake Fischer of Liberty Ballers opines (on Twitter). The scribe points to Rose being based out of New Jersey and his history of representing Sixers players as reasons for his optimism. The center’s former agency, the Wasserman Group, is based out of Los Angeles.
The continued emergence of rookie Jerian Grant changes the dynamic of the Knicks‘ offense, and the point guard’s energy and defense have become assets to the team, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes.
The Celtics have recalled power forward Jordan Mickey and point guard Terry Rozier from their D-League affiliate in Maine, the team announced. This was Mickey’s ninth stint with the Red Claws on the season and Rozier’s fifth.

Joel Embiid Changing Agents

January 13th, 2016 at 11:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Injured former No. 3 overall pick Joel Embiid is expected to sign with Leon Rose of the Creative Artists Agency, sources told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, after parting ways with the Wasserman Media Group, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported (Twitter links). Wasserman agent Darren Matsubara had been the representative for the Sixers big man. Philadelphia picked up its team option for next season on Embiid’s rookie scale contract this past fall even though he didn’t play last season and is likely to miss all of this season, too, with a lingering right foot injury.

The earliest he can negotiate an extension would be the summer of 2017, and he isn’t due for restricted free agency until the summer of 2018, casting doubt on whether Embiid’s change in representation has to do with his playing contract. Philadelphia has another team option on the final year of his deal, worth slightly more than $6.1MM for the 2017/18 season, and a decision is due on that in the fall.

Sixers coach Brett Brown recently touted improvements to Embiid’s mental approach to his recovery, and he’s displaying greater maturity and seriousness than in the past, as TNT’s David Aldridge wrote in November. Questions arose in October after Brian Geltzeiler of SI.com’s The Cauldron blog reported that Embiid was paying little attention to his rehabilitation and physical condition and that the Sixers were frustrated about it.

It’s the latest defection in a tough stretch for Wasserman, which has lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Jabari Parker, Danilo Gallinari and Joe Johnson since power agent Arn Tellem left to take a job in the Pistons organization this past offseason. Embiid is another prominent name on Rose’s client list, which includes Carmelo Anthony, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jonas Valanciunas. Rose is also a co-agent for Kevin Durant.

Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Bennett, Johnson

December 22nd, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

It’s been nearly 18 months without an appearance in a game since the Sixers made Joel Embiid the No. 3 overall pick in 2014, but Brett Brown sees signs of progress in the center’s mental approach to his rehab from a lingering foot injury, as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer relays.

“I just know what I see, just a committed, hopeful athlete,” Brown said. “He sees that he’s doing the right thing. He feels like he’s doing the right thing. He is doing the right thing. So I just see somebody that’s got the edge where he wants to get going again. I think mentally it’s night and day from talking to him this time in December last year.

Embiid has drawn criticism for alleged poor work habits and a contentious attitude, but it seems the Sixers aren’t too worried at this point. See more from the Atlantic:

Anthony Bennett became the first former No. 1 overall pick to go on D-League assignment this weekend, and the idea for the brief stint was his, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said, according to Jessica Patton of the Toronto Sun. Bennett wanted to see some court time, and Casey is pleased that Bennett and others have approached the team about spending time with the new affiliate in Mississauga. Bennett is one of five Raptors to go on assignment this season, as our log shows.
The talent-poor Nets are asking a lot from Joe Johnson, and the burden is wearing on the soon-to-be free agent, as Andy Vasquez of The Record examines. Johnson, a 15th-year veteran, called it the toughest season for him since his first or second year in the league, though he insisted that he’s not complaining. The 34-year-old is averaging his fewest points per game since his second NBA season.
Kristaps Porzingis still lacks bulk, and while he insists he’s not a project and has proven that already this season, his benching for the stretch run Monday is a reminder that the Knicks still have some player development to do with this year’s No. 4 overall pick, observes Kevin Kernan of the New York Post.

Sam Hinkie On Colangelo, Marshall, Free Agents

December 11th, 2015 at 5:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

GM Sam Hinkie pledged to remain with the Sixers, quelling rumors that he’s looking to leave the organization following the arrival of Jerry Colangelo as chairman of basketball operations, as Hinkie said as part of an in-depth interview with Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. “Our owners made it very clear they want me leading us long-term,” Hinkie said. “Adding one more voice will make the conversation richer. Might it be challenging at times? I’m sure it will be. But making big decisions shouldn’t be easy — it shouldn’t be that you have an idea, and you get to execute it without anyone questioning it.” The entire interview is certainly worth a read, and below are some of the highlights:

The GM said the team was off in its prediction that Kendall Marshall would be ready to play on opening night, with the point guard finally set to make his season debut this evening, Lowe relays. “We predicted it wrong,” Hinkie said. “That’s my fault. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and I’m sure I’ll make more.”
The Sixers believe Marshall can provide veteran leadership for younger players like Jahlil Okafor, as well as stabilize the point guard position, Lowe notes. “This has been hard,” Hinkie says. “We haven’t been proud of this kind of start. We had strong desires for a point guard who could help us play at a high tempo, and get our best players the ball in positions where they could be successful. We want someone to throw a post entry pass. We thought Kendall was that guy.“
Discussing why he has eschewed signing free agents who would have cost more, but likely would have helped the team win more games in the short term, in favor of adding younger players making the minimum salary, Hinkie told Lowe, “We could have chosen safer options. Many in the world would have us choose safer options — keep this player, instead of taking a gamble on a player whose name you don’t know. But when that player becomes Robert Covington, people are excited. We’ve chosen that sort of thing very often.“
Hinkie acknowledged to Lowe that the Sixers reached out to free agents Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler this past summer, but the lack of an existing star player hamstrung those efforts. “The most challenging part is to go from zero stars to one,” Hinkie said. “After the Clippers got Blake Griffin, Chris Paul is a possibility. After the Rockets had James Harden, Dwight Howard is a possibility. After the Cavaliers have Kyrie Irving, LeBron coming back is a possibility.“
The GM stands by the organization’s decision to select Joel Embiid and Dario Saric during the 2014 NBA draft, despite the knowledge that the duo would not be immediately available to contribute, Lowe notes. “That night showed tremendous courage on the part of our organization to have a longer view, and to do everything we could to get the best players,” Hinkie told the ESPN scribe. “Those were not easy decisions.”
Hinkie also maintains that the team selected point guard Elfrid Payton with every intention of keeping him, and that it wasn’t a move designed to pry assets away from the Magic, who were known to be high on Payton entering the draft, Lowe relays. “That’s such a high-stakes gamble that it strikes me as reckless,” said Hinkie. “I’m a lot of things, but I’m not reckless.“

Atlantic Notes: Colangelo, Okafor, Lee, Ross

December 10th, 2015 at 10:01am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers decided to hire Jerry Colangelo because they felt GM Sam Hinkie mishandled negative publicity surrounding Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor in recent months, Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says in a video. Owners with minority stakes in the Sixers pressured primary owner Josh Harris to make the move, Bucher adds. It’s inaccurate to say that the hiring came about in part because of pressure from owners who complained to the league about the Sixers’ rebuilding and its negative financial ripple effects, league sources told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who writes at the bottom of a larger piece. Still, commissioner Adam Silver was indeed involved in the move, Pompey adds. See more from the Atlantic Division:

The NBA continues to investigate the recent incidents involving Okafor and it hasn’t decided whether it will mete out punishment on top of the two-game suspension the Sixers issued last week, league officials told TMZ Sports. Colangelo has a strong relationship with agent Bill Duffy, who represents Okafor, as Bucher points out in his video. “Based on what we currently know, we support the 76ers’ approach in this matter,” an NBA spokesperson said to TMZ Sports. “The league office is continuing to investigate the events of that night.”
David Lee doesn’t regret the trade that brought him to the Celtics and ended his time with the Warriors, even as Golden State has embarked on a 23-0 start, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group relays. Lee’s representatives reportedly cooperated with the Warriors as they sought a new home for him this summer. “This is a business, and because of the salary cap and things like that, it was time for me to move on, and that’s what I did,” Lee said. “It couldn’t have ended any better.”
Terrence Ross is much the same player he was a few weeks after the Rudy Gay trade two years ago, and that’s perhaps the glaring issue for the swingman who signed a three-year, $31MM extension with the Raptors last month, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. His game grew more in the immediate wake of the trade than it has since, and inconsistency has plagued him, Lewenberg asserts.

Sixers Notes: Okafor, Embiid, Noel

December 4th, 2015 at 7:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Executives from other teams who’ve closely studied rebuilding strategies estimate that the Sixers would have to pursue what they’re doing for six or seven years before the odds of a successful turnaround would become highly favorable, reports Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. Philadelphia’s lack of willingness to sign veterans has irked agents, as has the team’s lack of tact when waiving players, as Lowe details. The Sixers assured Jorge Gutierrez they’d keep him after the trade that brought him to the team last season, but they waived him one day later while he was on the team bus, sources tell Lowe. The ESPN scribe is nonetheless skeptical that agents will keep their clients from signing with the team when it starts to win, as at least one agent has reportedly promised. See more from Philly:

A slowed-down version of the video of a second altercation allegedly involving Jahlil Okafor on the night of November 25th shows that Okafor didn’t hit a man, an attorney for Okafor claimed Friday on WIP’s Mike & Ike Show, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The incident, one of several in which Okafor has reportedly been implicated of late, helped prompt the Sixers to issue a two-game suspension.
Coach Brett Brown was asked if the team would benefit by a stronger veteran presence on the team, and he responded, “It’s hard to argue why not,” Noah Coslov of SiruisXMNBA relays (Twitter link).
Joel Embiid has grown to 7’2″, Brown told reporters, including Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News (Twitter link). Embiid was measured at 7’0″ at the 2013 Nike Hoops Summit, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
The jury is still out on whether or not Okafor and Nerlens Noel can coexist on the court together, with one NBA executive noting simply that the duo won’t ever mesh, Cooney relays in a separate piece. “They can’t play together,” the executive told Cooney. “I just don’t see it. Watch them defensively. Their instincts are both to defend the paint, because that is exactly what they’ve been doing all their lives. But here’s the problem. When the Sixers miss a shot or commit a turnover, both Noel and Okafor run back on defense and instinctively run to the rim, which they have been taught all their lives. Problem is, there is a Dirk Nowitzki or LaMarcus Aldridge or Kevin Love spotting up, waiting to get a wide-open shot. I don’t know if they can figure that out. The advantage to it is that Brett [Brown] has been around this situation before when he was in San Antonio and they were figuring out how to best get along with Tim Duncan and David Robinson. Of course, those are two Hall of Fame players.“

Eastern Notes: Fournier, Embiid, Brown, Nene

November 23rd, 2015 at 1:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

Evan Fournier turned down a four-year, $32MM extension offer from the Magic before this month’s November 2nd rookie scale extension deadline, league sources told Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Orlando and the Bouna Ndiaye client reportedly never came close to a deal, and Fournier is poised for restricted free agency this summer.

“To be honest, I did not even expect to be extended,” Fournier said. “I had no pressure about that. If there was something good, I will take it. If not, I can wait until the summer. I don’t have to worry about it and make the wrong decision. I have confidence in myself and the season that I’ll have. The contract will take care of itself. You can’t go on the court and think about a deal. You must be focused and you must have the right mindset.”

Fournier doesn’t have his sights set on becoming a No. 1 option for a team, but he’s motivated to put his days as an afterthought behind him, as Charania examines. See more from the Eastern Conference:

Joel Embiid appears to be carrying himself with more maturity and seriousness than before, knowing he must commit to his rehabilitation, a source tells TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. The Sixers had reportedly been concerned about his conditioning, among other worries about the former No. 3 overall pick, but he’s been keeping himself in shape, Aldridge writes. It’s a dose of positive news for the 0-14 Sixers, who remain committed to their loss-laden rebuilding plan, as Chris Crouse of Hoops Rumors wrote as he examined the team’s moves from the past several months.
Sixers coach Brett Brown wondered if his job was in jeopardy a year ago amid an 0-17 start for the team, but GM Sam Hinkie assured him then that he’s a major part of the plan, and the coach has earned respect within the organization for his persistence, Aldridge writes in the same piece.
Nene has been a starter for most of his career and has expressed disdain for playing center in the past, but so far, he’s accepted his role as backup center on the Wizards, and his team-leading 18 points Sunday helped show his value, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. Nene is set for free agency at season’s end.

Sixers Pick Up Options On Embiid, Noel, Stauskas

October 30th, 2015 at 10:27am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers have exercised their team options for 2016/17 on Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel and Nik Stauskas, the team announced. League sources told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer the moves would happen shortly before they took place. The news comes as no shock, as Pompey notes, though it represents a noteworthy vote of confidence for Embiid, to whom the Sixers are committing a salary of $4,826,160 for that season without him having played a single regular season game yet. Noel will make more than $4.384MM and Stauskas will see about $2.993MM on their 2016/17 options, as our post on Upcoming Rookie Scale Option Decisions shows, adding in excess of $12MM to Philadelphia’s payroll and doubling the team’s salary commitments for that season.

Teams are facing a Monday deadline for rookie scale team options like these. The vast majority of the these options are exercised, even in cases in which players have yet to blossom, though rarely does a highly touted prospect’s career begin as inauspiciously as Embiid’s has. Philadelphia committed the third overall pick to him last year, knowing that he’d already suffered a broken foot. He wound up missing all of 2014/15, and a follow-up surgery is expected to cost him the entire 2015/16 season, too.

Noel’s option was much more of an open-and-shut case. He, like Embiid, missed his first year under contract with the Sixers because of injury, but the 2013 No. 6 pick delivered last season, finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting and averaging 9.9 points and 8.1 rebounds in 30.8 minutes per game. He’ll be up for a rookie scale extension next summer.

Stauskas, another former top-10 pick, struggled in his rookie season last year as a member of the Kings, shooting just 32.2% from 3-point range after connecting on 44.1% of his 3-pointers in college. He came to Philadelphia via offseason trade, and while injuries forced him to miss the preseason and the first game of the regular season for the Sixers, he’s probable for tonight’s contest, according to Pompey.

One more matter the Sixers have until Monday to resolve is whether to grant a rookie scale extension to Tony Wroten, though little suggestion exists that they’ll sign him to one, so he’s likely set for restricted free agency in July. The Sixers also have a team option on Hollis Thompson for 2016/17, but a decision on that isn’t due until the summer because he’s not on a rookie scale contract.

Are the Sixers wise to be patient with Embiid? Leave a comment to tell us.

Latest On Sixers, Joel Embiid

October 16th, 2015 at 10:05am CST by Chuck Myron

Joel Embiid put off foot surgery this summer to party and play basketball in Las Vegas this summer, and the Sixers have been frustrated with his attitude and insubordination, sources detailed to Brian Geltzeiler of SI.com’s The Cauldron. Sixers majority owner Josh Harris didn’t want Embiid to accompany the Sixers to the Las Vegas Summer League in July, preferring that Embiid undergo the surgery doctors prescribed for his slow-healing right foot, and Harris instructed GM Sam Hinkie and Brett Brown to ensure he didn’t attend. Neither kept the former No. 3 overall pick from traveling to Las Vegas, multiple sources tell Geltzeiler. Embiid didn’t appear in games, but he shot jumpers and dunked on the side and refused to wear a medically prescribed walking boot, Geltzeiler hears. Surgery didn’t take place until August.

Hinkie has expressed a desire for Embiid to be more focused in his rehab, but he said around the time of Embiid’s surgery that the center had adhered to the recovery plan laid out for him. Embiid’s diet and conditioning have nonetheless worried the Sixers, multiple sources tell Geltzeiler, who also hears that Embiid physically threatened a Sixers strength coach last season.

Sixers majority owner Josh Harris remains firmly in Hinkie’s corner in spite of the issues regarding Embiid and other concerns around the team, but sources suggested to Geltzeiler that others within the ownership structure are losing patience. Last season’s Michael Carter-Williams trade riled and surprised Brown, multiple league sources tell Geltzeiler, though Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported in the spring that while Brown didn’t fully support the move, the tension between him and Hinkie was minimal.

Geltzeiler’s sources also say Scott O’Neil, who sits atop the team’s business operations as its CEO, was angry and caught off guard by the trade, as he’d planned to market around Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel. However, Sixers spokesperson Michael Preston denied any discord surrounding the move, calling it “unsubstantiated rumor” and “a gross mischaracterization of the events” in an email response to Geltzeiler’s inquiry. O’Neil said in a recent interview with Jake Fischer of SI Now that the team’s business department has come to terms with the trade and is excited about the club’s assets for the long term, which include a future first-round pick from the Lakers that came in that same Carter-Williams deal (Twitter link).

Dario Saric, another of Philadelphia’s prospects for the future, remains under contract with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes, and his father is pushing the Sixers away, a source tells Geltzeiler. Saric has denied that his father is exerting undue influence. Saric and the Sixers both reportedly wanted him to join Philadelphia in time for this season, but the first escape clause in his deal isn’t until next summer.