October 21, 2015
Almost every team in every sport deals with injuries, but the Sixers aren’t just any other team. Their continuity is limited and margin of error is almost nonexistent. As we all know, that’s kind of the point.
Already a grizzled veteran entering his third year as Sixers head coach, Brett Brown isn’t too thrilled that the regular season opener is only one week away.
“It’s been piecemeal,” Brown said. “They’re in, they’re out. And so I feel just from an availability standpoint, we haven’t had what I wanted in regards to being just a little more coached, a little more organized.”
Over the past month, Brown hasn’t operated with a full deck at any point. Think about all of the injuries that the Sixers have dealt with up and down the roster:
• Jahlil Okafor (right knee soreness) and Nerlens Noel (knee contusion, back), the starting frontcourt and a questionable fit at least on paper, both missed multiple preseason games.
• Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten, the top point guard options and locks to make the team, won’t be ready for the start of the season while they each finish up rehabbing ACL injuries suffered last season.
• Nik Stauskas (stress reaction, tibia), a new acquisition and the team’s projected starter at the 2, hasn’t practiced since the Sixers were at Stockton University almost three weeks ago. Sauce Castillo won’t play Friday against the Boston Celtics, either.
• Carl Landry, the team’s lone veteran, is still a long way from returning after undergoing surgery on his right wrist in the offseason.
• Pierre Jackson (groin), in a battle to land one of the last spots on the roster, still isn’t 100 percent according to Brown. The coach admitted on Wednesday that Pappy Jack has struggled physically in the preseason.
• Christian Wood (hamstring, knee) and Furkan Aldemir (plantar fasciitis), two guys battling for backup big spots, weren’t 100 percent participants during Wednesday’s practice at PCOM.
Apologies if I missed out on any others, but you still get the idea. Brown has been missing players on various levels of footing within the organization throughout the preseason. As of today, he only has one week and a final dress rehearsal before it’s full speed ahead: 82 games in 168 nights. Winter is coming.
So, how does Brown approach Friday night’s game against Boston, the same team the Sixers will open against next Wednesday? It’s the last chance for rotation players like Okafor and Noel to gel before the season starts, but also one final look for any players on the bubble.
“That is a juggling act, so I hope I can walk that line,” Brown said.
The roster has to be trimmed down from 20 to 15 players by next Monday, the day before the season starts. Don’t expect the Sixers to make their cuts much before the “death knock,” as Brown put it. The injuries have limited some players’ time on the court (and evaluation), while Brown also said some of the final decisions are very close.
So coach, what specifically is the criteria?
“By this stage, they should know what [those things] are,” Brown said. “If you would go ask them what matters most to me, they would be able to tell you, most of them. So naturally, you focus on those but as far as having an order of events to declare what I’m thinking about Jordan [McRae] or J.P. [Tokoto], there is no method to my madness.”
McRae and Tokoto are two players that I (with no inside info) would be surprised by if they were around past Monday. Here are the 13 names that I would definitely keep on the 15-man roster: Embiid, Okafor, Noel, Covington, Stauskas, Grant, Holmes, Wroten, Landry (yes, I think it’s healthy to keep at least one vet), Marshall, Sampson, Canaan, and Thompson. I would imagine Furkan Aldemir makes it as well, simply on the basis that his salary is guaranteed for this season.
That leaves a spot for one of Jackson, McRae, Wood, T.J. McConnell, Scottie Wilbekin, and J.P. Tokoto. The Sixers could enter the season with only one healthy point guard in Isaiah Canaan if they go big here, but Christian Wood easily has the most potential of the group and showed well up in New York last week.
“I think my chances [to make the roster] are pretty high,” Wood said. “I think I’ve showed the GM and coach what I can do.”
“I think they see it, so I think I have a pretty good chance of making the team.”
Of course, Sam Hinkie could throw this whole thing out of whack and claim somebody who was waived by another team. As Brown is fond of saying, “Shake your hand, throw you in the game.”
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
