Happy Monday! As we do at the start of every week, let's get things going with another edition of 5 Sixers thoughts, focused on a few crucial Sixers rotation pieces as well as some other happenings around the league:

Caleb Martin finally knocking down triples

After signing a four-year contract with the Sixers over the summer, Caleb Martin's first 20 games as a member of the team went about as poorly as possible. He was almost immediately playing through multiple injuries -- ailments that clearly messed up his jump-shooting mechanics, driving down his value for a Sixers team that became desperate to win games after a dreadful start to the season.

Finally, the Sixers elected to give the 29-year-old some time off to heal and were adamant that they expected a much better version of the hard-nosed wing when he returned. After 13 days on the shelf, Martin returned to action and submitted another subpar performance. After missing all three of his long-range attempts, Martin's season-long three-point percentage sunk to 27.8 percent.

Then came last Monday's game against the San Antonio Spurs, a wild and controversial contest in which the Sixers emerged victorious. Martin knocked down three of his four three-point tries, and threw down a powerful transition slam as the Sixers escaped with a win. Head coach Nick Nurse suggested it was Martin's best showing of the season.

Two days later, this happened:

Martin, whose longstanding ability to torment the Boston Celtics has been well-documented, swung the Sixers' Christmas Day bout in Boston into a win with a career-high seven three-pointers, quickly supplanting the solid performance Nurse had raved about as Martin's new game of the year.

On Saturday night in Utah, Martin's numbers did not jump off the page, but he knocked down a triple, scored on an impressive and-one finish driving to the rim, nabbed a steal and blocked two shots, helping the Sixers escape with a win over the Jazz.

Suddenly, the Sixers appear on the verge of having the best version of Martin on a consistent basis. Remarkably, in just the last three games, Martin's season-long three-point percentage has risen by nearly 10 percentage points -- from the aforementioned 27.8 percent last week to 37.1 percent entering Monday's action.

MORE: Sixers nab Christmas Day win in Boston

Early returns on the Joel Embiid + Guerschon Yabusele frontcourt

When Joel Embiid returned from his second extended absence of the season, Nurse desired size and muscle on the floor. He elected to start Guerschon Yabusele at power forward in hopes that Embiid and Yabusele would be able to overpower opposing teams. Given Yabusele's excellence as a spot-up three-point shooter and his connective passing chops, the fit made a decent amount of sense on paper.

But the arrangement only lasted two games, in part because stellar play from Caleb and KJ Martin forced Nurse's hand. Despite Yabusele being a natural power forward, his best minutes as a Sixer have come at the five, while both Martins have been at their best playing the four.

In any case, the early returns on Embiid and Yabusele as a frontcourt pairing have not been encouraging, though the sample size is still not large enough to take too much away from the data. According to NBA.com, the Sixers have a -9.6 net rating (point differential per 100 possessions) in 76 minutes across 10 games when Embiid and Yabusele are on the floor together. It is a wholly unimpressive mark, particularly because any pairing that includes Embiid is typically going to be a safe bet to have good point differential numbers.

Yabusele has been absolutely brilliant for the Sixers this season, a true star in his role, and he has plenty of time to find a stronger rapport with the team's centerpiece. He appears confident that will happen soon enough.

"Just got to read around him," Yabusele said after the team's Monday morning shootaround last week when asked about what he has learned about playing alongside Embiid. "Got to keep on moving. He's a great playmaker... he wants to involve everybody on the team."

Lakers and Nets make a trade with possible Sixers implications

Perhaps no theoretical trade target has been connected to the Sixers more since the start of the season than Dorian Finney-Smith, a sturdy and reliable two-way wing who can play either forward position and has enjoyed the best three-point shooting season of his career to date for the Brooklyn Nets.

You can cross Finney-Smith off your boards, as the Los Angeles Lakers swung a deal for the terrific 31-year-old role player on Sunday, sending D'Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks to Brooklyn for Finney-Smith and our old friend Shake Milton.

Milton, who signed a three-year deal at a hair above the veteran's minimum with two seasons of non-guaranteed salary to facilitate the Mikal Bridges trade from Brooklyn to the New York Knicks, had actually begun playing his best basketball in years, perhaps putting himself on the trade radar with two excellent showings as a scorer, shooter and passer. If Milton even proves to be on the fringes of rotation-caliber again, he will be a real asset on that contract, particularly for a Lakers team with difficult financial constraints and insufficient depth, especially at ball-handler spots.

Finney-Smith is the real prize of the deal, though, representing the second starting-caliber veteran Brooklyn has dealt to a Western Conference team in the last two weeks. The Nets traded point guard Dennis Schröder to the Golden State Warriors for more second-round picks soon after the unofficial start of NBA trade season on Dec. 15.

After a stunningly good start to a season in which they were expected to compete for the best chance of winning the NBA Draft Lottery, the Nets clearly decided they needed to begin selling their most attractive pieces early as to accelerate their tank. 

Schröder was not linked to the Sixers as much as Finney-Smith from a public perspective leading up to Dec. 15, but both were extremely sensible targets who could help fill needs in Philadelphia. And the Sixers could have matched or topped the winning bids on both players.

It is unclear how much interest the Sixers actually held in Finney-Smith and Schröder, but if either one was a real target of theirs, the Sixers were burned by Brooklyn's better-than-expected first six weeks. In order to make a Finney-Smith or Schröder deal work -- for reasons related to the salary cap and each team's ambitions -- KJ Martin would have almost certainly needed to be sent to Brooklyn. But unlike most players who signed contracts in free agency last summer who became trade-eligible on Dec. 15, the Sixers will not be allowed to move KJ Martin until Jan. 15 due to the significant raise he received from 2023-24 to 2024-25.

MORE: Why has Paul George struggled to score?

Updates on Sixers two-way players

If the Sixers eventually fill their open roster spot -- which they may not do until after the trade deadline in early February -- each of their three two-way players can be active for up to 50 NBA games before they are no longer eligible to suit up for the Sixers.

As the world's foremost attention-payer to all matters related to Sixers two-way contracts, here is another update on where Jeff Dowtin Jr., Justin Edwards and Pete Nance stand in terms of used and remaining NBA days:

Two-way players are not eligible to participate in the postseason, so if the Sixers eventually viewed any of these three players as helpful rotation pieces, they would have to be converted to a standard NBA contract -- perhaps filling the aforementioned open roster spot -- to be allowed to play in the Play-In Tournament or playoffs.

Sixers reportedly a 'potential suitor' for Lonnie Walker IV

Speaking of that open roster spot, NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Sunday evening that the Sixers are among "potential suitors" for former first-round pick and Reading, PA native Lonnie Walker IV, who is currently playing in Lithuania, but drawing NBA interest again:

A player who has shown flashes of promise across six NBA seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers and Nets, Walker has been one of the most widely-discussed free agents in the league, with many puzzled as to why he has not caught on with a team for good.

Walker, who turned 26 years old earlier this month, signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Boston Celtics in hopes of earning the last spot on their NBA roster. Boston instead opted to leave the spot open for financial purposes. When the Celtics waived Walker, he could have been claimed by any team on a non-guaranteed minimum contract, but nobody did and he headed overseas.

A 6-foot-4 guard with an impressive 6-foot-10 wingspan, Walker has averaged 9.8 points per game across 322 NBA contests (88 starts), earning a reputation as a player who could get hot in a hurry as a scorer. Walker also had the best three-point shooting season of his career in Brooklyn last season, shooting 38.4 percent from beyond the arc on considerable volume (4.7 three-point attempts per game; 13.3 three-point attempts per 100 possessions).

The Sixers utilizing their lone open roster spot before making a trade seems unrealistic, but if they truly believe in Walker being a valuable piece, they could look to bring him in once their trade talks have ended.  

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