The Philadelphia 76ers begin the preseason schedule on Sunday when they take on the Boston Celtics on the road. They will be without a number of pieces: Joel Embiid, James Harden, De’Anthony Melton and Furkan Korkmaz.
Harden, who still has a trade request, is ramping up his conditioning. Embiid and Melton are healthy scratches. However, coach Nick Nurse revealed Korkmaz, a veteran out of Turkey, is dealing with a nagging injury.
“We have a couple guys ramping into conditioning to be able to play a game,” Nurse told reporters of the players resting. “We have one guy that’s overworked a little bit, so we’re giving him a night off as well and we got an injury which is Furk. Furk’s got a bit of a strain and he’s probably a few days away from getting back to action.”
Nurse revealed it was a leg strain for Korkmaz.
Korkmaz fell out of the rotation in the 2022-23 season, but he is a proven player. He can shoot and provide some ballhandling on the perimeter.
Considering there will be a competition for minutes, Nurse wants to see more of Korkmaz and give him a chance to earn a spot.
“One guy I do wanna see a lot of is Furk,” Nurse added. “I think Furk didn’t get a ton of opportunity last year, but in years gone by, he’s been pretty good and he’s been practicing very well. I wanna see where he ends up in this deal and we need to get him back out there so I can find that out.”
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