A new week is upon us, and... what a week we just wrapped up. It began with excitement over what the Sixers could look like with Joel Embiid back in the fold after his return to action. The team has only played one game since then, and not only is Embiid already back on the shelf due to a sinus fracture, but dynamic rookie guard Jared McCain is headed for knee surgery after reporting knee soreness and having a torn meniscus revealed in an MRI.
As always, let's kick off the week with 5 Sixers thoughts, focused on one interesting recent on-court development, some upcoming tweaks to the team's rotation and two NBA transactions involving old friends:
KJ Martin finding comfort in the corners
There may only be two healthy Sixers who have outperformed expectations in 2024-25. One is Guerschon Yabusele, and the other is Martin, who continues to find ways to impact winning on both ends of the floor. He has developed a strong two-man game with good friend Tyrese Maxey predicated upon his screening, rolling and verticality. He has become the Sixers' most versatile defensive weapon, guarding across the positional spectrum on a routine basis. He has turned himself into an offensive weapon in transition.
Finding offensive utility in the half-court will always be Martin's biggest challenge. After four years of subpar three-point shooting, Martin spent the summer reworking his shooting mechanics. The Sixers expressed hope he had made legitimate improvements as a shooter -- enough that he could shoot at a strong percentage on very limited volume. The Sixers just need Martin to be able to make wide open threes, and he has done that so far.
When shooting from either corner, in particular, Martin looks comfortable right now. He knocked down two corner threes on as many attempts on Friday night, and has now made six of his nine corner three-point attempts this season:
Of course, the sample remains miniature for now. But Martin's form looks vastly improved from where it had been in the past, he is projecting genuine confidence.
Martin has appeared in 20 games this season. In his first 14 appearances, he attempted just five total three-point shots, taking more than one long-range try in a game only once. In his last six games, Martin has tried at least two threes on five occasions. His evolution continues.
Adjusting the rotation without Jared McCain
With McCain out of the picture for the foreseeable future, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has some extremely difficult quandaries to solve as he crafts a new bench unit, where the team's lack of quality ball-handling options is a bit jarring.
38-year-old Kyle Lowry was playing far too much -- both in terms of the mileage he was capable of handling and based on the quality of his performance -- before being sidelined for five games with a right hip strain. Lowry returned on Dec. 3 and has averaged just 11.8 minutes per game since, and during that span he has more missed games (2) than made field goals (1).
And yet, with McCain's potential progression towards becoming the team's backup point guard behind Tyrese Maxey now halted, Lowry is in line for a fairly notable bump in playing time moving forward.
On top of that, Eric Gordon appears to be on the verge of receiving another rotation opportunity as the Sixers look for three-point shooting to help fill the void left by McCain. Gordon, who will turn 36 years old on Christmas, started for the Sixers on opening night -- a signal of how excited the team was about the impact his long-range shooting could have on the team -- and eventually plummeted not just to a low-minute bench role, but now to the outskirts of the rotation.
Gordon has been active but not played in each of the team's last five games -- the result of a ghastly 23.8 three-point percentage in 16 appearances. Following the team's Sunday morning practice, Nurse credited Gordon for staying ready.
"The first step is if somebody is out of the rotation, is what are they doing to try to get themselves back in?" Nurse said. "Eric came in here yesterday and had a great -- like, he's trying to get himself back in there. He's trying to stay ready and be ready to go. We did look at some of that at practice today. Again, he's had a good few days personally, a good day today with the team. Those are positive signs. I would say he's probably one of the candidates to come in there and fill [McCain's] position."
Gordon is simply not a 23.8 percent three-point shooter. But can he shoot well enough consistently enough in small doses to make a difference for the Sixers moving forward? Nurse is certainly hoping so.
Caleb Martin continues recovery
Caleb Martin will not be available on Monday night when the Sixers face the Charlotte Hornets on the road, but with a week off now under his belt, the battle-tested wing spoke after the team's practice on Sunday and expressed optimism that his right shoulder ailment was healing well and confidence that upon returning, he will look more like the player the Sixers had hoped to see.
"Definitely, definitely feeling better," he said.
In fact, when Caleb Martin was seen getting shots up after practice, his form looked far more like it did during his time with the Miami Heat than it has during his tenure with the Sixers so far -- a bit unusual, but not nearly as janky. There was far less involvement of his lower body, which is a plus. Adding an improved version of Caleb Martin would provide a significant boost for the Sixers' wing rotation.
"I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but he's out there playing -- he's not anywhere near 100 percent," Nurse said last week. "He's got all kinds of things going on. Trying to take care of some of those. I'm encouraged, I think he can certainly play a lot better. He's kind of in this... trying to figure out where he is, how he fits, all that kind of stuff. But I'm not worried about it at all because he plays his guts out, he's great in the locker room, he puts in all the time on the film, all those kinds of things. It's just going to be a bonus when he gets settled in, feeling a little better physically, then we can figure out how to use him and make him feel a little more comfortable."
When exactly Caleb Martin will return to action is unclear, but Nurse has consistently made a point to refer to him as "day-to-day," indicating the team does not anticipate his absence being a long-term one. And when he does, the 29-year-old wing will have plenty to prove. In 20 games as a Sixer, he has been one of the least efficient players in the NBA, shooting barely over 40 percent from the field, just below 30 percent from three-point range and only 67.2 percent from the free throw line.
MORE: T.J. McConnell reaches 10 years in NBA: 'I went out and earned what I've gotten'
De'Anthony Melton on the move
Sunday was Dec. 15, the unofficial start of trade season in the NBA. This is the date that most players who signed contracts in free agency become eligible to be dealt, and the first one of them to be moved was our old friend De'Anthony Melton. Melton, who signed a one-year deal with the Golden State Warriors in hopes of rebuilding his value and earning a long-term deal before the 2025-26 season, suffered a season-ending ACL injury last month.
Golden State decided to make use of Melton's expiring contract, trading him along with three second-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for veteran guard Dennis Schröder and one protected second-round pick. Schröder would have been an interesting theoretical target for the Sixers if the team were to officially become trade deadline buyers and he was still on the board.
Schröder, 31, is having a terrific season, and on the surface, Brooklyn settling for second-round compensation to trade him as soon as they possibly could seems unusual. But the rebuilding Nets are 10-15, far better than anyone anticipated -- and the team continuing to defy expectations would derail their chances of being in position to land a premium draft pick. Clearly, they wanted to begin their firesafe as early as possible.
Now that Dec. 15 has passed, 10 of the 14 players on the Sixers' NBA roster are eligible to be traded without their consent. Two more -- including KJ Martin -- will become eligible on Jan. 15.
MORE: Breaking down early Sixers trade targets
Paul Reed waived by Detroit Pistons
The unique offer sheet "BBall Paul" signed with the Utah Jazz a few years ago ultimately burned him. Reed, whose 2024-25 salary would not be guaranteed until the second week of January, was waived by the Pistons over the weekend to preserve some additional financial flexibility -- the same reason the Sixers waived him in July, which enabled the Pistons to claim Reed and keep him on the same contract.
Reed, 25, only played 125 minutes across a dozen outings for Detroit, unable to emerge from a frontcourt logjam headlined by Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. He will be an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any team. That includes the Sixers, who have an open roster spot but can only offer veteran's minimum contracts to free agents.
Could the Sixers pursue a reunion with Reed? The team did not plan to waive him and let him go for nothing last summer, viewing him as a positive asset on his team-friendly deal, but had to clear money quickly in order to sign Caleb Martin. But having the open roster spot gives the Sixers significant flexibility in trade talks, no matter what path they choose to go down at the deadline.
If the Feb 6. deadlines comes and goes, Reed is unsigned and the Sixers have the roster space for him, a reunion could be considered. But anything happening before then seems difficult to imagine.
MORE: Checking in on more former Sixers
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