PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers are back home on Sunday to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in the home opener. Along with the Blazers waiting for them, the Sixers also had James Harden at home waiting for the next step of his process.
After 10 days away from the team, Harden returned to the Sixers for one practice before they left for Milwaukee and Toronto to open the season. Coach Nick Nurse and his staff told him to stay home and continue to get ready for live competition; Philadelphia doesn’t want him to push it just yet.
The Beard is also out for their home opener, but Nurse said he is back with them.
“James was here, yup,” said Nurse. “He was here for the film session and walkthrough. He had some good conditioning days, still in the ramp up process, looking to have him back in practice on Tuesday. That’s about where we are with that.”
Harden is still looking for his trade request to be fulfilled, but being back with the team is a good sign to get him back toward playing games again. The Sixers want him to be with them, but he didn’t play in the preseason, missed a lot of time and they want him to get the work in.
“All signs are positive conditioning-wise and all those things,” Nurse added of Harden. “We just need to get him in some live action. Hopefully, we can do that Tuesday.”
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