Happy Monday! The Sixers are finally back at home for the week, with three winnable games on the docket beginning with Monday's matchup against the Phoenix Suns.
As we do every week, let's kick things off with 5 Sixers thoughts:
Justin Edwards shines, with Ricky Council IV on the outside looking in
Perhaps the most noteworthy individual performance during the Sixers' win in Brooklyn on Saturday night belonged to rookie two-way wing Justin Edwards, whose second ever rotation cameo in the NBA was also his second in three games. In 23 minutes, Edwards scored 11 efficient points and grabbed five rebounds.
"I think we need that wing presence first and foremost, just defensively and on the glass," Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said after the game. "It was really good to see him. He seems to get shots. I don't know how long that will last, but I think it's just because he's kind of in the right place and the ball finds him a little bit. Obviously, making them -- that's huge if he's going to do that. But again, just that presence defensively and on the glass is kind of what we need."
Just as notable as Edwards' extended inclusion in the rotation is the fact that he supplanted a player Nurse has also hoped to use as a wing presence with rebounding juice. Council has just not had the same ability to change the tenor of games this campaign as he flashed during his rookie season, which he spent much of on a two-way deal. Nurse has seemed unable to entrust Council with consistent and significant playing time unless he has been forced to do so due to other injuries (this, of course, has happened on multiple occasions).
Now, Council finds himself on the outside looking in. Much like he flashed signs of promise as an athletic, undrafted two-way wing with excellent positional size a year ago, Edwards is doing the same now.
"This is my first game up here being comfortable," Edwards told the media at his locker after his career-best night. "The last couple games I played and I was overthinking a lot. But now that I feel like I've got my feet under me with this team, I feel more comfortable."
MORE: Sixers handle business in rout of Nets
Be on the lookout for a KJ Martin update
Martin has had a terrific season, all things considered, despite the fact that he will be at the center of trade rumors once he becomes eligible to be dealt on his trade friendly contract when Jan. 15 strikes. He had actually earned the starting power forward role on a team which was briefly at full health (aside from the absence of rookie guard Jared McCain). Martin has made significant strides since arriving to Philadelphia in Nov. 2023 with his passing, screening and transition scoring, while also providing solid defense across the positional spectrum.
A tough blow came when Martin suffered a stress reaction in his left foot on Dec. 23, an injury which was initially designated as soreness. The next day, the team announced Martin's diagnosis and said he would be re-evaluated in two weeks. That was 13 days ago, so expect an update of some kind on Martin in the near future.
Martin, who turns 24 years old on Monday, accompanied the Sixers on their six-game road trip over the last 10 days, despite having already been ruled out for all of those contests.
Nurse committed to improving the Joel Embiid-Paul George partnership
A clear trend has emerged from Nurse's substitution patterns in recent games in which Embiid, George and Tyrese Maxey are all available: Embiid and George sharing time together, while Maxey often leads lineups comprised of second unit pieces.
The natural reaction to this arrangement might be confusion -- Embiid and Maxey have an absolutely lethal two-man game, the team's most reliable source of offense by far. But not only is Maxey much more equipped to handle minutes as the team's lone star than the 34-year-old George, but Nurse is also keeping a focus on the future. Playing Embiid and George together more frequently will enable them to develop a similar on-court rapport, Nurse hopes.
"I'm trying to sub accordingly, to make it happen a little bit more often," Nurse said. "That's probably the ideal thing, is to try to sub it so that Joel and Paul can be featured when Tyrese is out."
How does George envisioning himself and Embiid improving their rapport?
"Just us getting more reps. I think we've gotten more comfortable with the dialogue and communication between him and I is getting stronger and stronger -- what he sees, what I see. As my rhythm is starting to come back, you know, he knows I'm reliable out there with him. Continue games, continue reps, we'll get better... It's a balance. It was tough trying to figure out how to play my game within the offense, within the team, within the group, continue to be aggressive but figure out how to win games and how to play within the group. So it was a difficult challenge, but a fun one. And I think now I've kind of figured out where I can insert myself and kind of be myself again."
MORE: How can George turn around his scoring?
Reggie Jackson keeps up with the times and finds a new niche
Jackson has spent nearly the entirety of his 13-year NBA career known for his scoring chops. Jackson, for better and for worse, has been largely an on-ball scoring threat for a very long time. It made his fit on a Sixers team with three members of last year's NBA All-Star teams questionable.
Whether or not Jackson can stick as a rotation piece is up in the air -- he has been one of Nurse's regulars in recent games because of a plethora of injuries -- but give Jackson this: on a team that does not need him to dribble the air out of the ball, he has adjusted.
Now, Jackson is specializing in spot-up three-point shooting, where he has performed well so far as a Sixer. Jackson has made over 38 percent of his long-range tries, and while no player can abandon shot attempts from inside the arc, Jackson has taken 62.9 percent of his field goal attempts as a Sixer from three-point territory. His career three-point attempt rate entering the season was just 35.1 percent.
Nurse said after the team's win over the Nets that he has liked the look of Jackson and Kyle Lowry together in the backcourt during the minutes in which Embiid and George are leading the charge while Maxey rests on the bench.
"It gives them a chance to kind of work together as far as bringing the ball up. Seems like maybe there's one that doesn't maybe get as much pressure... so we can get the ball up and get into our stuff" Nurse said. "They're pretty interchangeable. And then it also kind of shifts us into our first time we go to zone, and Kyle is pretty good at playing in the back. Even though he's small, he's good at kind of directing traffic from back there. So, I don't know, I just thought it was a good way of letting them play an extended stint rather than one of them goes in and things don't go well and it turns into a three- or four-minute stint that's not any fun for either one of them. So it's just a chance for them to play a six-, seven, eight-minute stint together there in the first half and buy us some minutes."
MORE: Nurse talks rotation decisions after win over Nets
Could the Sixers sign a player to a 10-day contract?
NBA teams are now eligible to sign players to 10-day contracts -- a fairly reasonable short-term proposition for a Sixers team which entered the season with an open roster spot to maintain flexibility. If the Sixers like a player or two on the open market, they could use a 10-day contract as a device to give someone a brief chance to prove their value, with the ability to quickly cut bait should they choose to do so.
According to Bobby Marks of ESPN, the Sixers are one of 11 NBA teams which currently holds an unoccupied standard roster spot:
If the Sixers do test the 10-day waters, might a ball-handler make the most sense? Nurse has ultimate faith in Lowry, and Jackson provides some sense of stability in that spot, too. But neither player is exactly reliable, while two-way point guard Jeff Dowtin Jr. continues to dominate competition in the G League without solidifying his status as an NBA-caliber floor general.
Finding a wing who can defend and rebound would make sense in light of Nurse's apparent lack of trust in Council, but for now, Edwards may continue to receive opportunities in that spot. With Embiid's ongoing health issues, another center to join the mix is conceivable, but between Guerschon Yabusele and Andre Drummond, the Sixers can piece together 48 minutes, with rookie Adem Bona also being able to work his way into the action and two-way big Pete Nance already in the organization.
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