CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers continue to await the return of Paul George. The Sixers brought in the 9-time All-Star on a 4-year $212 million deal in the 2024 offseason and the versatile forward was limited to only 41 games due to a variety of issues. He just didn’t look like his usual self in his first season in Philadelphia.

George underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in the offseason in an effort to prepare himself for the upcoming season. He has not been able to do much in the preseason as he has not played in any exhibition games nor has he done much in practice, but it appears that has begun to change.

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The Sixers announced on Wednesday that George, along with Joel Embiid, participated in most of practice. George played in some 3-on-3s and coach Nick Nurse expanded on that a bit.

“Yeah, so obviously, I talked about the long segment at the beginning, they were all in that,” Nurse said of his recovering stars. “We got to some 3-on-3 work that was live, but it was full court live. They both were in that. That was kind of Paul’s first live action. I don’t know. I thought he looked really good, right? For live practice one, and the pace at the way it was going is, I think, a challenge, conditioning-wise, and some of those things, but he looked good.”

One can forgive George for having some conditioning issues at this stage of his recovery. Especially, when considering he hasn’t been able to do much with the knee injury, but Nurse gave him credit for pushing through all of that and showing that he can still play at a level to help right now.

“He played through it,” Nurse added. “You still see this incredible shot maker. Like, you see it and I think he was moving very well and he didn’t seem tentative to me for a guy, again, first practice back with live action. So I think they were all positive steps for him today.”

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The Sixers have one final preseason game left on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves before beginning the season on Oct. 22 against the Boston Celtics.

This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Nick Nurse discusses Paul George’s injury progress at Sixers practice