Written by Kelly Dwyer at YahooSports.com
The Philadelphia 76ers won’t play on Christmas this year because, well, why would they?
The team is still stuck deep within The Process, losers of five straight to begin the season after winning just 47 combined games in the three previous seasons while gathering the sort assets that only losing can provide. The NBA doesn’t usually like to schedule teams boasting a 47-199 record to work on the league’s showcase slate of day and evening games on the holiday, especially the sort of 47-199 team that can start a season 0-5 without a blown synapse in the house. The Sixers, as usual, are playing as expected.
What will improve, reportedly starting on Dec. 26, is the team’s ability to field its best players. “Rookie” center Joel Embiid and scoring pivotman Jahlil Okafor will see their playing time restrictions (currently stuck at around 24 minutes a game) lift following that unofficial demarcation point, placed nearly two months following the start of the 2016-17 season.
Sixers coach Brett Brown, prior to his team’s close loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday evening, confirmed the idea. From Dave McMenamin at ESPN:
“As I understand it, [the minutes] will not escalate until Christmas and then it will only be judged,” Brown said Saturday before the Sixers lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 102-101. “It may stay the same then, too.”
[…]
“There is always a judgment, a decision in relation to back-to-backs, but as a sort of a cut-off minute restriction, I believe that it’s going to stay at 24 until Christmas,” Brown said. “And then we’ll judge that second third [of the season] after that first third ends. We’ll judge that second third accordingly.”
From Jessica Camerato at CSN Philly:
“I think as I watch them and we judge their fitness, I think at times going beyond four five-minute segments is not good for them,” Brett Brown said. “I feel like fatigue sets in given the amount of time that they’ve been able to play and practice, etcetera.”
This would be wonderful news for any team, as Embiid clearly looks like a franchise center to begin his career, and Okafor remains an intriguing prospect despite some on and off-court setbacks from 2015-16.
If we’ve learned anything from the myriad significant injuries that can befall pro talents, meniscus tears in the knee and Jones fractures in the foot are certainly worth minding in ways that even ACL tears or (if Paul George is any indication) broken legs are worth fretting over.
Okafor, who slightly tore his right meniscus late in his pockmarked rookie season, is averaging just 19.5 minutes in four games thus far with Philly in 2016-17. He’s averaged 10.5 points and 4.3 rebounds, in work off of the 76ers’ bench.
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