CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 The avalanche of injuries suffered by the Philadelphia 76ers last year begat a slew of injury check-ins to start media day.<\/p>\n
For most, Friday\u2019s language was vague but broadly hopeful.<\/p>\n
Joel Embiid is \u201con schedule\u201d in the rehab from his latest knee surgery in April, though no one shared said schedule. Paul George\u2019s road back from a knee procedure in July has him doing \u201cpretty much everything but full contact.\u201d Embiid played just 19 games last year, George 41 in his first season with the Sixers.<\/p>\n
But a roster that featured 30 different players and a 24-58 record had much more wrong with it than just maladies at the top. And so the rehab rundown was voluminous.<\/p>\n
Andre Drummond spent the summer doing toe yoga to strengthen a chronically balky digit that limited him to 40 games and 7.3 points per outing. In his 14th NBA season, Drummond feels confident he can be a more regular contributor as Embiid\u2019s understudy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing a lot of toe yoga this summer to really just get that strength back in my big toe and being able to move it freely without having to tape it to get it to do what it\u2019s supposed to do,\u201d the ever affable big guy said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know what it is, look it up. It\u2019s definitely not a fun experience. But it worked out for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric Gordon\u2019s season ended in February with a wrist injury, his campaign curtailed at 39 games and 6.8 points per game just as he appeared to be regaining a shooting touch that abandoned him in the fall. He had surgery but was able to resume basketball activities on a normal schedule in the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a couple of months after the surgery, I was able to shoot,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019ve been able to shoot all summer. Anytime you have a surgery, you\u2019re always going to have ups and downs. But so far, everything\u2019s been good. I\u2019m looking forward to practice tomorrow with no real limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 76ers declined an option on Gordon, then brought him back on a minimum contract, the 17-year veteran describing a sense of unfinished business.<\/p>\n
A chronic hip injury limited Kyle Lowry to 35 games and 18.8 minutes per outing. But the Philly native and Villanova grad is back for his 20th NBA season as the hip \u201cfeels great.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will only need to be so for a minimized role, Lowry serving mainly as a mentor for a passel of young guards, in addition to a new gig as an analyst for Prime Video basketball telecasts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel really good,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cI think me being able to just be on the court to help these guys as best I can, but I know my role this year. If I\u2019m needed, I\u2019ll be there. But my role is to help these guys. I would love to play 25, 30 minutes, but that\u2019s not my role. It\u2019s not my job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly Oubre, whose 60 games played last year was third-most on the team and most among returnees, underwent offseason therapy on fingers on his left hand that had been previously operated on to increase strength and range of motion.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Two absences from media day were formally revealed a day earlier.<\/p>\n
Jared McCain tore a ligament in his right thumb at a workout Thursday. The club offered no timeline or course of treatment for the second-year guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still consulting with specialists,\u201d President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey said, adding that McCain\u2019s injury \u201ccouldn\u2019t have been more fluky.\u201d \u201c\u2026 We know Jared is going to attack this just like he did the last one and be back even better.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCain was not among the 16 players to speak to the media Friday.<\/p>\n
He played 23 games (eight starts) last year before tearing the meniscus in his left knee in December. Surgery to repair that ended his rookie season. He was the 16th overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for him,\u201d Tyrese Maxey said. \u201cComing back from his knee injury, he\u2019s worked his tail off to get where he is today. But the thing about Jared is he\u2019s a positive person. He works extremely hard, so he\u2019ll be back extremely soon, and I know he\u2019ll get 100% healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Also absent and excluded from the training camp roster was Quentin Grimes. The guard, acquired in February from Dallas, has until Oct. 1 to decide to accept or decline a one-year qualifying offer for $8.7 million.<\/p>\n
Grimes is unlikely to accept the offer, which includes full no-trade protection. The 76ers can sign him at a higher rate for one season, which would allow the option to trade him at the deadline, or they can negotiate a longer-term deal, though the sides remain far apart on compensation, per reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we will get to a resolution in the next few days, hopefully,\u201d Morey said. \u201cBut we\u2019re excited to bring him back, and he\u2019s a big part of what we\u2019re trying to do, now and into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grimes averaged 21.9 points in 28 games last year. The absence of McCain heightens his value in a backcourt that will also include Maxey and No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe. Morey has consistently expressed a desire to retain Grimes\u2019 services.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Oubre drew attention this month for an Instagram comment on a fan account post opining on the possibility of trading the 29-year-old swingman, who is in the final year of his contract.<\/p>\n
Oubre lamented in the comment that \u201cthe love doesn\u2019t seem to be reciprocated\u201d by the city toward him after two seasons here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to apologize for the things that I say, because nobody\u2019s going to do the same to me,\u201d Oubre said Friday. \u201cBut at the end of the day, it was just an accumulation of lack thereof discussion or kind of exing me out of the equation. I\u2019m here, I\u2019m all in. I wear this jersey for a reason, because I want to. So it was just kind of the fan pages and all the people who represent the Sixers \u2014 not in this building, of course \u2014 it was something to just let you guys know that I\u2019m still here. And I\u2019m not here to fit in. I\u2019m here to stand out and help this team the best that I possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Good news for the medical professionals that the 76ers have on retainer: Players have been scrimmaging in Camden for the last two or three weeks, and they\u2019ve been playing with no fouls called. Which, given the team\u2019s injury history, is great?<\/p>\n
Oubre, in his typically creative ways, called it \u201cfootsketball-ish.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got back here, we\u2019ve been playing pickup with no fouls, so I learned the hard way coming back,\u201d Drummond said. \u201cSo I think the intensity and the toughness is being built right now. I think it\u2019s going to surprise a lot of teams, too, just the way that we play. \u2026 I think our new style of play is going to be very good for our team. And I\u2019m really looking forward to playing against somebody else instead of beating up of my own teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in there, we\u2019ve just been hacking, just been fouling,\u201d Justin Edwards said. \u201cAnd they haven\u2019t been calling it. So, I feel like we need that, honestly, playing through fouls, just being tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 The avalanche of injuries suffered by the Philadelphia 76ers last year begat a slew of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,4013],"class_list":{"0":"post-305971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","13":"tag-philadelphia76ers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-reg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115273197482888407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}