CAMDEN, N.J.–Development is a key thing in the NBA. Young players need to get their time on the floor and be able to play and fight through mistakes and other issues.
The Philadelphia 76ers have an intriguing young player in Jaden Springer who is in his third season in the league. He has received more time in 2023-24 than he has in his first two seasons, but not much as of late.
Springer last played on Nov. 22 against the Minnesota Timberwolves before he then fell ill and he missed some time. He was active against the Boston Celtics on Dec. 1, but he wasn’t able to get some time. Therefore, the Sxiers sent Springer down to the G League on Saturday to get some time in for the Delaware Blue Coats.
“I just wanted to send him down there as a one-gamer,” explained coach Nick Nurse. “He had the illness and some time away and he hasn’t hit the court for a while and I just feel like these guys do as much as they absolutely can do, him included. Like an early to practice, late to leave practice guy, and play a lot of those—we call them rise-up games after practice that are live, but I still don’t think it comes as good as actual live competition.”
Nurse is correct. Springer plays in those games after practice at the team’s facility, but at this stage of his career, he must get as much court time as possible.
“I still think there’s competing and reading and handling that kind of stuff that that keeps guys sharper, so that’s all,” Nurse added. “I just wanted him to—I thought it was a good time. He’s been out for a couple of weeks. We didn’t have a game that day. We didn’t have a game the next day so that was like slotted in there really good.”
He had 19 points in a Blue Coats win over the Greensboro Swarm on Saturday. Not bad for a guy who found out late that he would be headed down to Delaware.
“Kind of a late game time decision by us to do it and get it all done, but I thought he did good,” Nurse finished. “I mean, he really looked like he could get to the front of the rim just about any time. We want him to continue to work on off-ball defense, readiness, reading things like that, and still want him to look at shooting the 3-ball more. I thought, again, he does things he can do pretty easily last night in that game. So I think it was good for him overall.”
[lawrence-related id=87493,87483,87490]