Here is a list of the 22 players who have worn the No. 20 uniform of the Philadelphia 76ers in the franchise’s history.
It’s summertime in the NBA, so it’s time to learn some history. The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the older franchises in the NBA. Their history dates to the 1949-50 season.
With that longevity, the team has had hundreds of players come through the City of Brotherly Love. Sixers Wire looks at the No. 20 which has been worn by 22 of those players in the history of the franchise.
Rookie Wire took a look at the top performances by players on 10-day hardship contracts.
The month of December proved to be a rather difficult time for teams and players alike in the NBA after dealing with the latest outbreak of the coronavirus.
Over 200 players entered the health and safety protocol in December and 11 games were postponed as a result of the outbreak. Teams have called up nearly 100 players from the NBA G League to replace those in the protocol, creating opportunities for under-the-radar guys.
With several roster players sidelined in the protocol, teams relied on those call-ups to field teams and avoid further postponements. Several players signed via hardship exception took advantage of the opportunity and made a name for themselves.
Shoutout all the guys filling in to keep this season going – from unknown guys to the vets I hope everybody take advantage of the opportunity 💯🎲
The performances by those players will go a long way in securing long-term contracts in the NBA. The latest obstacle surrounding the coronavirus certainly proved to be difficult but one uplifting consequence is seeing several players realizing the opportunity of a lifetime.
With most teams through the worst of the latest coronavirus outbreak, Rookie Wire took a look at some of the top performances by players signed via hardship contracts. We will continue to update this list with each notable outing.
Explaining what hardship exceptions and replacement players mean as COVID-19 protocols hit the NBA.
As the omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to spread, the NBA has required a large share of “replacement players” to fill in for the players who are in health and safety protocols. And so far, more than 100 players have reportedly entered the league’s health and safety protocols so far this month, per ESPN’s Baxter Holmes.
But how exactly do the “replacement players” work?
Essentially, the NBA’s hardship exception allows teams to exceed the 15-man roster limit if more than three players on the roster are each going to miss extended time due to illness or injury. Typically, teams weren’t allowed to apply for the hardship exception before Jan. 5.
But starting last season, the league changed the policy to allow earlier exceptions. And as of earlier this week, effective Dec. 19 until Jan. 19, the NBA is allowing teams to sign one replacement player for each player on their roster who tests positive for COVID-19.
While there are some big names (e.g. Isaiah Thomas, Lance Stephenson, CJ Miles) who have signed as replacement players, there are lots of promising young NBA hopefuls who are hoping to use this opportunity as a chance to stick around the league.
Not all of the players below were signed through hardship exceptions and some transactions (e.g. DeMarcus Cousins and Wesley Matthews to the Milwaukee Bucks) may have happened anyway during a normal season.
But below, based on the NBA’s transaction log and reporting from the league’s top insiders, you can find a live tracker of all the players who have signed new deals with NBA teams over the course of the past month.
The Los Angeles Lakers could reportedly bring in JaKarr Sampson and/or Tim Frazier for the final roster spots.
Though the 2021 free agency period has reached its quiet stage after the Los Angeles Lakers made their essential signings, there are still three guaranteed roster spots left on the 15-man squad.
However, the Lakers reportedly will keep the 15th slot open to maintain roster flexibility moving forward but do want more ball-handling guards and a wing or forward for the other two spots.
“Forward JaKarr Sampson, who spent the past two seasons in Indiana, and veteran guard Tim Frazier are two more free-agent names that have emerged as candidates for the two roster spots that the Lakers plan to fill.”
Sampson, 28, is a six-year veteran who last played for the Indiana Pacers. He’s typically been an energy plug off the bench but doesn’t quite check the boxes for what the Lakers need.
Throughout his career, the 6’7″ forward has averaged 5.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, 0.5 blocks and 0.7 assists while shooting 47.1 percent overall, 20 percent from deep and 67 percent from the free-throw line.
Sampson could fill in Jared Dudley’s role as a small-ball center, but he’s not a proven floor spacer, which is suboptimal for L.A’s needs.
Frazier, 30, has played seven seasons in the NBA but for eight teams. He hasn’t stuck anywhere in his career and has averaged 5.0 points, 4.0 assists and 2.3 rebounds throughout his journey in the league. His career shooting splits of 40.4/32.2/72.8 aren’t the most enticing for the 6’1″ guard.
The Lakers aren’t in a rush to make signings, so there could be more players emerging as candidates as the days progress.
The NBA will allow teams to sign a replacement player if there’s an injury, a positive COVID-19 test or a player who chooses to sit out.
As the NBA prepares to resume the 2019-20 season in July, more details about the league’s plan are coming to light. In the event of an injury or a positive COVID-19 test during training camp or the regular season, teams will be able to sign replacement players from the free-agent pool.
The NBA will allow each team to bring 17 players (including their two-way guys) to Disney’s Wide World of Sports. There won’t be a limit on how many replacement players a team can sign, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Once the playoffs start on August 17, teams won’t be able to add any replacement players.
Every night, players will be tested for COVID-19; if a player tests positive, they must self-quarantine for 10-14 days while their team continues playing.
Not only will replacement players be necessary in the event of positive tests, they also could be called upon if a player is injured. Most teams will arrive in Orlando healthier than usual at this point in the season thanks to the four-month break, but a number of trainers and players have expressed concern that there could be more injuries than usual when the season resumes. After all, players have been working out on their own since mid-March and it’s hard to mimic game movements and intensity while training alone. Ramping back up slowly with a training camp (and potentially two or three exhibition games) should help, but there’s still increased injury risk.
Because this is an unprecedented situation, people around the NBA have no idea how teams will approach this transaction window and how many replacement players will be signed.
“I’m not sure if teams will rush to sign guys,” an agent said. “NBA rosters are already the biggest of any major sport in terms of the ratio of players on the roster to players on the court/field,” the agent explained. “In the NBA, it’s 15:5 (or 3:1) whereas it’s 25:9 (or 2.8:1) in MLB and 53:22 (or 2.4:1) in the NFL. And that doesn’t even include two-way players. I’m sure every team is aware of all the available G League guys and free agents. But in the playoffs, most rotations shrink to nine or 10 guys anyway. So, if you have 15 players, you should have five extra guys.”
“I’m curious to see if teams will sign free agents,” one Western Conference executive added. “I have no idea what will happen. At the end of the day, we’re just talking about a 15th man most likely, right?”
One Eastern Conference general manager pointed out that some teams may not consider signing replacement players at all, even if there is an injury or a positive COVID-19 test. Since a replacement player would have to quarantine for 10-14 days before playing, the team’s injured or sick player may be close to returning by the time the replacement player is finally able to take the court.
“I think as long as a team doesn’t have multiple players who get sick at the same time, they won’t sign anyone,” the general manager said. “I think most teams will just wait for their sick player to return.”
Some NBA teams with an open roster spot may decide to sign a free agent prior to arriving in Orlando rather than waiting until an injury or positive test occurs to address their depth. Technically, this player wouldn’t be a “replacement player,” but he’d be stashed on their roster in case of emergency. This would allow the player to go through training camp with the team as well as the initial quarantine period in Orlando. Then, if there is an injury or positive test, he would be able to play right away rather than having to quarantine for 10-14 days upon arrival like a replacement player would have to do.
Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about how some players may choose not to play when the season resumes in Orlando. In recent weeks, a number of executives brought up this possibility and openly wondered what would happen if their players sit out because they didn’t want to be in the bubble for months and risk their health. Now, some players are also concerned that resuming play would shift the public’s focus away from the Black Lives Matter movement.
While it’s possible that enough NBA players speaking up would force the NBPA to back out of the plan to resume play, it seems more likely that the NBA will just allow each player to make their own decision when it comes to participating. If a player chooses to sit out, their team will resume play without them. These players wouldn’t face any consequences (aside from not being paid) and NBA teams would be allowed to sign a replacement player to take their place, according to a recent article by Wojnarowski.
There’s also some concern that players on fringe playoff teams will opt to play, but then want to leave the bubble or sit out as soon as their team is mathematically eliminated from the postseason. Players won’t want to put their health at risk and stay in the bubble if they aren’t playing for something. Some players (such as Damian Lillard) have already said that they wouldn’t risk their health to participate in meaningless games, and who could blame them?
“I feel like the eighth seed and the ninth seed could partially be determined by whose schedule sets them up against teams who are ‘tanking’ at the end,” said one Western Conference executive.
DeMarcus Cousins is one of the free agents who’s eligible to be signed. (Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)
Interestingly, not all free agents are eligible to be signed as replacement players.
In order to be eligible, a player had to be on an NBA or G League roster this season or last season. Players who were overseas as of March 11, 2020 (when the NBA season was suspended) are not eligible to be signed, which rules out some notable free agents such as Lance Stephenson, Donatas Motiejunas, Greg Monroe and Miles Plumlee. If a player started the season overseas but got a FIBA clearance before March 11, they are eligible to be signed as long as they were on an NBA or G League roster in 2019-20 or 2018-19 (like Willie Reed, for example, who was in Greece to start the season but then got his FIBA clearance and signed with a G League team).
There are plenty of of notable free agents and former G League players who are eligible to be signed including DeMarcus Cousins, Isaiah Thomas, Darren Collison, Jamal Crawford, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, Nik Stauskas, Kenneth Faried, Tyler Zeller, Jerian Grant, Corey Brewer, Tyler Johnson, Jodie Meeks, Michael Beasley, Nick Young, Trey Burke, Allen Crabbe, Jordan Bell, Justin Anderson, Tim Frazier, Tyrone Wallace, Ivan Rabb, Jarrod Uthoff, Amile Jefferson, Jonah Bolden, Tyler Ennis, Josh Magette, JP Macura, Ryan Broekhoff and Yante Maten among others.
While it’ll be interesting to see how the 22 NBA teams in the bubble utilize the replacement players, the eight teams who aren’t resuming play will be allowed to sign players during this transaction window too. Don’t be surprised if some of these teams take advantage of this opportunity to add a free agent and acquire their Bird rights.
“I would be on the lookout for a smart non-bubble team to add someone during the transaction window,” one NBA agent said. “Any team can sign guys from that same pool of talent and, I assume, pay guys the same pro-rated amount.”
In Wojnarowski’s article about replacement players, he confirmed that “the eight teams left out of the Orlando resumption are allowed to waive or sign players during the transaction window,” although “they cannot sign a player to a two-way contract.”
It’s worth noting that a lot of these details are still being worked out and nothing is official as of yet. Several agents and executives pointed out that they’re receiving these updates through social media, just like the rest of us, and awaiting further instruction from the league or NBPA.
