Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Prince J. Grimes.
Stop me if you’ve heard this sentence before. The Philadelphia 76ers are beginning the new season with a disgruntled star away from the team.
We’ve been trending in this direction for some time now, but with the season finally underway, it’s looking more like a certainty James Harden won’t be taking the floor with his teammates in the Sixers’ opener against the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday on TNT (so much for the league’s rules on stars missing games).
Despite rejoining the Sixers for practice Wednesday after being away for more than a week, Harden was asked to stay home for their trip to Milwaukee, The Athletic’s Sham Charania reported. Head coach Nick Nurse said the team is giving Harden time to get ramped up to play.
“He’s been gone 10 days, so we are re in ramp up phase again,” Nurse said after Wednesday’s practice. “So, like we would normally do, he will stay and get on-court work with our staff and with our players from the [G League Delaware Blue Coats] and two-way guys and things like that and try to get him ramped up as soon as we can.”
Now, look, all that sounds good and reasonable and it makes a lot of sense, but if you think this is just going to be a smooth transition from Harden not being with the team for 10 days to him blending in and playing his part like a good employee, I have a few Meek Mill mixtapes I’d like to sell you.
At worst, this is going to be a full-blown Harden heist of team morale and positivity while the Sixers work to find a trade they like, which could drag all the way to the deadline like the Ben Simmons saga did before this. At best, it’s a distraction, and one this team is unfortunately becoming used to.
While Harden’s situation isn’t exactly the same as Simmons’ in 2021, it probably doesn’t feel that much different for the players who were around for both. They have a teammate who’s mostly MIA and doesn’t want to be there, and a front office dragging its feet on doing something about it. So, they’re left to answer questions about what’s going on and have no clue what the team is going to look like when it’s all resolved.
It’s completely unfair to them — and Nurse — and puts a damper on external expectations for the 76ers, even if they all still feel confident inside the building. To make matters worse, Harden was the player they brought in to get away from Simmons, and they’re right back in the same spot two years later.
If Philadelphia fans needed a distraction from the loss their Phillies just took in Game 7 of the NLCS, this mess isn’t the place to turn. Put your energy into the Eagles.
Charles Barkley asks Adam Silver about domestic violence in the NBA
The NBA’s recent track record handling issues of domestic violence has not been great.
From the ridiculously short suspension the league handed Miles Bridges after he pleaded no contest in a case of domestic violence to the aftermath of charges against Kevin Porter Jr., who was allowed to be traded after the horrific allegations against him were already public, the NBA just really hasn’t made a strong stance against these things.
That didn’t exactly change Tuesday after commissioner Adam Silver’s appearance on TNT’s Inside the NBA, but it wasn’t for a lack of opportunity. Charles Barkley reportedly went off script to ask Silver about what the league was doing to address issues of domestic violence, and it seemed to have caught the commissioner completely off guard.
FTW’s Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about that exchange here, and while Silver was his usual calculated self in his response, one part came across very hollow. “If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous,” Silver said.
From what we’ve seen so far, I can’t say that’s exactly true.
One to Watch
(All odds via BetMGM)
LOREN ELLIOTT/AFP via Getty Images
The moment has finally arrived for No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama’s NBA debut, as the San Antonio Spurs play host to the Dallas Mavericks Wednesday night. And while I’m not ready to say the Spurs will win or even cover as 4.5-point underdogs, I will make some prop predictions for the rookie phenom.
- Over 17.5 points (-135)
- Over 6.5 rebounds (-110)
- Under 1.5 3-pointers (-200)
- Over 2.5 blocks (+110)
I’m not actually betting on these props because I really just want to watch this one with no emotion and enjoy what the young man brings to floor in his first game. Y’all should do the same.
