CAMDEN, N.J. — As the Philadelphia 76ers move forward following the James Harden trade, the attention shifts to what happens with the team’s new additions.
While potential moves are in the hands of President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey, the Sixers are looking to work in their new additions into the rotation.
Nic Batum, Marcus Morris Sr., Robert Covington and KJ Martin did not play major minutes in Thursday’s win over the Toronto Raptors. Batum is away from the team due to personal reasons. Morris is looking to ramp up activity before getting into a game. Covington and Martin played 1:15 of garbage time on Thursday.
At Friday’s practice, the new additions, other than Batum, played in a scrimmage to get ready for game action.
“Just trying to check general conditioning and rhythm of where they’re at and then just what they can pick up,” Nurse said of his expectations for them. “How much stuff they’ve got under their belt. They’ve spent a good two or three sessions now learning some of the sets and stuff. Just seeing their fit, but it’s good for them.”
As for Batum, it remains to be seen when he will return to the team. That is something Nurse is trying to find out.
“He’s not back, but I think — I’m not totally clear on that,” he said. “So I better not answer it right now. So I guess I need to check right after this. I have some meetings this afternoon to see where we’re at.”
As for Morris, he hasn’t played in a game since April 25 against the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs. Nurse is looking to ramp him up a bit before throwing him out in any live action.
“He hasn’t played at all in any — I don’t even think he played a preseason game or regular season games,” he explained. “So he’s more in the ramp-up phase of trying to get him going like you guys can see over there. He’s playing 5-on-5 full-court right now trying to get him going. He looks good individually working out. Looks pretty good in the scrimmage here today, so he shouldn’t be too far away.”
Marcus Morris Sr. drills a triple in the far corner off dribble penetration as he continues to ramp up and prepare to play in games #Sixers pic.twitter.com/giAHVfI7dU
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) November 3, 2023
As the Sixers prepare to take on the Phoenix Suns on Saturday at home, Nurse isn’t sure if any of those players will be ready to go, but Nurse also acknowledges they have to play at some point.
“Maybe,” he pondered. “I think that probably still kind of don’t mind the rotation where it’s at right now and just probably don’t want to disrupt the rhythm and things like that, but we’ll see. I gotta think about that, discuss it with the staff a little bit. We got to work them in. It isn’t like the schedule is going to ease (up) like there’s a big break coming or something. So we got to get them in there sometime.”
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