(Courtesy: Memphis)

The Sixers signed 21-year-old swingman Adonis Thomas to a 10-day contract, the team announced.

The contract of James Nunnally, who had exhausted his share of 10-day deals, had expired Saturday night, leaving the Sixers’ roster with a vacancy.

The 6-7, 240-pounder spent most of his season with the D-League’s Springfield Armor. Sandwiched between D-League stints was a four-game stint Thomas played in Orlando on a pair of 10-day deals, the last of which expired March 14. While with the Magic, Thomas averaged 1.8 points, 0.8 rebounds and 0.5 assists.

Thomas went undrafted last summer out of Memphis, where he played two seasons.

Friday’s game at Memphis should feel like a homecoming for Thomas, who was born there. Thomas is the Sixers’ fourth player with Memphis roots. Thaddeus Young, Elliot Williams and Arnett Moultrie all went to high school in the Tennessee town.

Thomas will be the eighth rookie and the 23^rd player overall to have appeared in uniform this season for the Sixers, and the 28^th to occupy a spot on their 15-man roster.

(AP)

The 76ers’ Arnett Moultrie was suspended five games without pay by the NBA for violating terms of the league’s and the players association’s anti-drug program.

The league announced Moultrie’s ban Monday, when the second-year forward was said to have begun serving his salary-free suspension with the Sixers’ game at Atlanta. In addition, Moultrie is also ineligible for the Delaware 87ers’ games during his suspension. He was assigned to the Sixers’ D-League affiliate March 15.

The 6-10, 245-pound Moultrie would not be eligible to return for the Sixers until April 11, for the final four games of the regular season.

The suspension of Moultrie, a 2012 first-round draft pick, should be a cause of concern for the Sixers. They are on the hook for the 23-year-old’s $1.14 million contract for the 2014-15 season, picking up his team option during training camp. 

Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie has shown no reluctance in his willingness to eat salaries, however. He waived center Kwame Brown, owed $3 million, in November. And he did the same in March with guard Eric Maynor, who is set to make $2.1 million next season.

Moultrie has appeared in only 12 games this season for the Sixers, for whom he’s averaging three points and nearly three rebounds. Between two tours in the D-League, he’s averaged 10.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 28.3 minutes in eight appearances with the Sevens. 

Moultrie was withheld from practice until Dec. 31, while recovering from preseason left ankle surgery.

The 76ers have assigned Arnett Moultrie and Lorenzo Brown to the D-League’s Delaware 87ers.

Moultrie has not played this season, as he continues rehab on his surgically repaired right ankle. The second-year forward “will receive additional on-court time at game speed with the Sevens as a step in his return to the Sixers,” the team said in a statement Tuesday night.

Monday in New York, Moultrie seemed to indicate that he had no idea why he had yet to debut this season for the Sixers.

“It’s not my ankle. It’s not my conditioning,” Moultrie said. “But at this point, I really don’t care. I’m just sick of all the excuses. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another thing.

“It’s just (baloney).”

As for Brown, this makes his sixth assignment to the D-League. He’s averaging 19.2 points, 6.9 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game in 11 appearances for the Sevens. He’s only appeared in 19 games for the Sixers, and after being recalled Monday, did not play in the Sixers’ loss at Brooklyn.

(USA Today)

NEW YORK – The 76ers’ Arnett Moultrie sounded off Monday about the delayed debut to his sophomore season.

Moultrie missed all of training camp and the first two months of the regular season due to rehab related to a surgically repaired right ankle, which he injured in offseason workouts. He first practiced with the Sixers Dec. 31, and has been a participant in on-court activities ever since.

Moultrie rebuffed the reason that’s been given by Sixers coach Brett Brown, who has said the second-year forward remains inactive while getting into basketball shape.

“It’s not my ankle. It’s not my conditioning,” Moultrie said, before the Sixers played the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. “But at this point, I really don’t care. I’m just sick of all the excuses. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another thing.”

When pressed for the specific reason he’s been given for why he’s yet to play, Moultrie declined.

“I’d rather not say,” he said.

The 6-10, 240-pound Moultrie, who was inactive against the Nets, has missed the season’s first 48 games, after averaging 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 47 games as a rookie. The Mississippi State product, who works out in pregame with assistant coach Lloyd Pierce, returned to the locker room Monday with heavy sweat rings around his shirt.

“I’ve been good for the last month,” Moultrie said.

(AP)

Conditioning appears to be “the main hurdle” in Arnett Moultrie’s return to the court, said 76ers coach Brett Brown.

The second-year forward has yet to play this season due to a pre-training camp left ankle injury that required surgery. Moultrie’s ankle “is almost perfect,” Brown said. Getting the 6-11, 249-pounder into basketball-ready shape is the next task, though Brown added there is no timetable for Moultrie’s eventual season debut.

“He’s doing OK. He’s continuing to get in shape. That’s the main hurdle,” Brown said after Tuesday’s practice. “The ankle is almost perfect. It’s not the ankle. We’re helping him achieve some fitness goals from a conditioning standpoint to a weight standpoint, and he’s moving along. We hope to see him a heck of a lot sooner rather than later.”

Moultrie has only been practicing with his teammates for the last few weeks. His first 5-on-5 practice was Dec. 31 in Denver.

The Mississippi State product averaged 3.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 47 games in his rookie season.