CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 Cam Payne didn\u2019t go to Serbia during fall seeking a means to an end.<\/p>\n
A veteran of 477 NBA games with seven teams, he certainly hoped to add to those numbers.<\/p>\n
But after a preseason spent with the Pacers that didn\u2019t pan out and a workout with the Suns, Payne wanted to play, not wait for NBA inquiries.<\/p>\n
If the road led back to the NBA, so be it. But objective No. 1 for the 31-year-old point guard was to play and enjoy playing again with Belgrade club KK Partizan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told my agent this morning, I don\u2019t know how I keep finding a way to get back,\u201d Payne said. \u201cBut I guess the NBA is still watching and if you still take your game seriously and do the right things, play the right way, they\u2019re still looking. So it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doing things the right way led Payne back to a second stint with the 76ers, who officially signed him on Wednesday to bolster their backcourt for the stretch drive of the season.<\/p>\n
Payne returns to an organization he knows well, playing 31 games at the end of the 2023-24 season. He hopes the familiarity hastens his acclimation, which included a practice Wednesday in Camden and opens Thursday night when the 76ers host Atlanta to return from the All-Star Break.<\/p>\n
Payne provides a fourth playable guard, behind the starting tandem of Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, with Quentin Grimes off the bench. The Sixers dealt away Jared McCain to Oklahoma City at the trade deadline, leaving veteran Kyle Lowry as the only other guard and foisting more ball-handling duties on wings like Trendon Watford and Kelly Oubre.<\/p>\n
Payne is a legitimate second-unit floor general who played 72 games (five starts) last year with the New York Knicks, then 14 more in the postseason. He averaged 6.9 points, 2.8 assists and 15.1 minutes per game for the Knicks last year.<\/p>\n
Formerly with Phoenix, Chicago, OKC, Milwaukee and Cleveland, he\u2019s averaged 7.8 points per game in his career. He\u2019s also logged 72 career postseason games.<\/p>\n
Payne has twice before had to go overseas \u2014 in 2019-20 to China, then this year to Europe \u2014 before getting back into the NBA. This year\u2019s deal happened fast once the NBA trade deadline passed on Feb. 4, Payne getting into town Tuesday to finalize the contract after flying from Belgrade through Amsterdam to Philly and straight to Camden.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found out maybe two or three days ago,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI was literally at my game. I was out that game, so I was just watching, and my agent kind of told me during the game, he was like, it\u2019s going to happen pretty fast so you might want to pack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne brings speed, energy, a career 36.8 percent shooting rate from 3-point percentage and a willingness to pull the trigger no matter how limited or few-and-far-between his opportunities are.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we\u2019ve got a veteran ball handler, a guy who\u2019s played in some big games,\u201d coach Nick Nurse said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve seen Cam, he provides some speed, energy, 3-point shooting, will run some pick-and-roll, will get some layups here and there. Just a really good piece for us. I think he fits. Really liked him when he was here. I think we needed a little backup, backup point guard spot, and he fits it pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he has good energy,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cWhen he gets in the game, he knows he\u2019s going to push the pace, play hard, make shots, and then even when he\u2019s on the bench, he has good, positive energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne wasn\u2019t necessarily in need of rediscovering his joy in Serbia, but he found a spark anyway.<\/p>\n
Sometimes that was literal, the Partizan ultras notorious for their boisterous chants and indoor flares. That\u2019s not all that Payne had in mind when describing the atmosphere as \u201clit,\u201d though, the Memphis native adapting to the differences of the international game and how it\u2019s received in Europe.<\/p>\n
More than anything, Payne had free rein to be himself, a refreshing change for a guy who has spent most of a decade fitting himself into discreet reserve roles on NBA rosters.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust playing, actually being the focal point of a team, running the offense, running the show,\u201d he said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t really been like that since college, so it was cool to actually get back into that role of playing. And now that I\u2019m coming back here being a backup, you kind of have that same ownership of the second unit. You\u2019ve got to run the team still. So it was just kind of cool to be able to go over there and actually play and actually have a real role, like they count on you for real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne gets to rejoin a backcourt with talent and familiarity. He said Kyle Lowry told him how much he\u2019s going to love playing with Edgecombe, who Payne has already diagnosed as \u201ca dog\u201d who \u201clooks like he\u2019s been in the league a little bit longer than him just being a rookie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payne has also seen huge growth in Maxey, an All-Star the last time Payne was with the 76ers but now an All-Star Game starter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat man took a crazy jump,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI feel like he took a crazy jump from last year to this year. I feel like he excelled his game even more coming to this season, just watching the shots he takes. Obviously he\u2019s been taking those shots, but the efficiency is crazy. He\u2019s actually changed his game from the last two years I was here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Joel Embiid (right knee) practiced in Camden on Wednesday, though was off the court by the time it was opened to media. The 76ers later listed him as out for Thursday\u2019s game against Atlanta with a new designation of right shin soreness.<\/p>\n
The team said that Embiid reported the soreness while going through the injury management program on his right knee during the All-Star Break. He will be reevaluated before a back-to-back in New Orleans and Minnesota this weekend.<\/p>\n
Embiid had a scheduled meeting with doctors Wednesday afternoon. The team said he is \u201cprogressing through on-court work and strength and conditioning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Embiid had missed\u00a0the last two games before the All-Star Break, in Portland and against the Knicks. It\u2019s the first time he\u2019s missed back-to-back games since Dec. 19-20.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was out there, looked pretty good,\u201d Nurse said Wednesday before the injury report. \u201cHe\u2019s got a meeting shortly with the doctors here this afternoon. So we\u2019ll know a little bit more about where he is. But he was out there a little bit today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMDEN, N.J. \u2014 Cam Payne didn\u2019t go to Serbia during fall seeking a means to an end. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,7464],"class_list":{"0":"post-610995","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-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116095526301801309","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610995","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=610995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}