(AP)

Upon arriving in Philadelphia, Nick Young had two items on his agenda.

He had to undergo an MRI on his left knee, which turned up news that the Los Angeles Lakers guard stands to miss at least the next two weeks. Then, Young went to the King of Prussia Mall. Since Young, who played for the 76ers last season, cannot play against his old team Friday, he opted for the next best thing.

“I want to go out there and play against them, talk some trash to Spencer (Hawes) and Evan (Turner) and Thad (Young) and have some fun. That’s the downside,” Young said. “But I went and got a suit jacket because I still want to be out there and talk some trash. I’m looking forward to it.”

Young came to Philly under the auspices of a season that never came to fruition. He, Dorell Wright and Jason Richardson were brought aboard as shooters with which the Sixers would surround Andrew Bynum. But Bynum, beset by knee injuries, never played. And Young, who was given a one-year, $5.6 million deal, never lived up to the expectations created by his financially bulky contract.

The Los Angeles native, Young took a one-year contract worth $1.1 million from the Lakers. He has a player option for next season that he’s likely to pick up.

“Being able to play at home and for the Lakers is great,” said Young, who’s out for at least two weeks with a non-displaced fracture of his left knee cap. “I was seeing my options, but I was looking at the Lakers and the opportunity that was going to be there for me. Playing for them and being home, I couldn’t ask for better.”

Young has experienced a career renaissance with the Lakers, for whom he’s averaging 16.9 points (second behind Pau Gasol) on 41.9 percent shooting.

With the Sixers, under Doug Collins, he was an on-again, off-again personality. He was Swaggy P, an affable, congenial player who was always smiling. Some days, he was liked. Others, he was not. Some days, he was playing in crunch time and contributing. Others, he was coming off the bench only when the game was out of reach.

“Philly was good. It had its ups and downs,” Young said. “Obviously I wish I played more. But the city and how they embraced the Swaggy P Movement, I didn’t know they were going to be big on it, but they enjoyed it.”

Young played only eight of his final 25 games last season with the Sixers. The other 17 were DNP-CDs.

“Just sitting there and watching it, it’s hard. It was hard for me,” Young said. “I didn’t know why I wasn’t playing. (The Sixers) were bringing in players from the D-League and they were playing over me. It ain’t like I cussed (Collins) out or nothing. I was just sitting and waiting. But Doug hits me up from time to time. He texts me. He says he’s proud of me and stuff.”

In Young’s words, last season “is what it is.” And, Young said, it could have been different.

“Drew never got a chance to play. I know the fans were going crazy over that,” he said. “But what shocked me was this year. I had no idea they were going to trade Jrue Holiday, but obviously they’ve seen something in Carter that no one else did.”

That would be Michael Carter-Williams, Holiday’s successor as the Sixers’ point guard. Young will get a good look at the rookie. Only, it’ll have to come from the Lakers’ bench.

(AP)

WASHINGTON – Evan Turner said he and 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie have not spoken regarding the fourth-year forward’s future with the franchise.

“There’s nothing really to speak on. Whatever happens, happens,” Turner said Friday, before the Sixers played the host Wizards. “That stuff will come down. I’m just playing. All of that is after-season matters. I’m just worried about playing for the Sixers. The rest will work itself out.”

The Sixers did not exercise the qualifying offer on Turner for next season prior to Thursday’s midnight, league-mandated deadline. The team still has until June 30 to pick up the $8.71 million qualifying offer that would make Turner a restricted free agent and give the Sixers a chance to match another team’s offer, but that seems unlikely.

Turner said he’s came to terms with the fact that the Sixers wouldn’t pick up the qualifying offer.

“I knew that a while ago,” he said. “I knew when Sam took over and traded Jrue (Holiday) and all of that. I wasn’t expecting anything. Hinkie is not my GM. He doesn’t owe me anything. I’m just taking advantage of playing. I just didn’t expect anything. We’re going in a different direction.”

Turner’s future with the Sixers, the team that drafted him second overall in 2010, remains uncertain. He said he didn’t want to guess as to whether he’d be in Philly next season.

“I really don’t know, to tell you the truth,” he said. “He (Hinkie) just traded Jrue and Jrue is a walking legend, you know what I’m saying? Even Wilt Chamberlain got traded.

(AP)

76ers coach Brett Brown has indicated that it might be a longshot for rookie center Nerlens Noel to make it onto the floor this season.

Brown made that statement Monday night in Columbus, Ohio, before the Sixers played the host Cleveland Cavaliers in a preseason game on the campus of Ohio State University.

“I doubt, everybody doubts (Noel) is going to play this year,” Brown told reporters Monday.

Brown went on to say that Noel has shown improvement in his rehab, but added that progress been “slow.”

This is the first instance that Brown has ever hinted of Noel’s injury causing him to miss his entire rookie season. Noel has been traveling with the Sixers while rehabbing a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, an injury he sustained last February in a game at Kentucky, where he played one season.

The Sixers had intimated all along that Noel’s debut with the team seemed most likely in 2014, possibly as early as January, but had never assigned a timetable for the 6-11, 230-pound center. 

If anything, the Sixers’ decision to preserve Noel until he’s fully healed shouldn’t be viewed as a setback.  It was always assumed that the Sixers, who are in a rebuilding phase with a new coach, a new general manager and plenty of new faces on the roster, felt no rush in grooming Noel for on-court time in the regular season.

Still, Noel has looked strong and assertive on his feet following recent practices, working almost exclusively with assistant coach Greg Foster. In the post-practice shooting sessions, he’s taken low-post jumpers, field goals in the lane and worked on his free-throw shooting with Foster.

The Sixers traded for Noel on the night of the NBA draft, sending All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday to New Orleans in exchange for the draft rights for the 19-year-old Noel, taken sixth overall by the Pelicans, and a 2014 lottery-protected, first-round pick.

Last month at the team’s media day proceedings, Noel categorized the status of his knee as “improving.” He had said he expected to play this season. In the interim, Noel said he was using his rehab time as a means of better getting to know his new teammates and learning the ropes of the NBA.

“I prepared myself. I’m staying focused with everything,” Noel said at the time. “Although I won’t be playing (in the preseason), I’m a student of the game and I’m seeing how certain players play and their tendencies. I’m doing the job. Even though I’m not playing, I’m learning.”

Should Noel miss the 2013-14 season, he would represent the second big man in two years to have sat out an entire season with the Sixers. Andrew Bynum, the 7-footer acquired by trade in the 2012 offseason, did not play a single game while battling recurring knee injuries. Bynum this summer signed a two-year contract with Cleveland, the Sixers’ opponent Monday, but he’s yet to debut for the Cavaliers.

(AP)

Projected to have one of the youngest starting lineups in the NBA, the 76ers aren't going to be granted any favors during the 2013-14 season – beginning with their opening-night opponent.

The Sixers will open the season Oct. 30 at Wells Fargo Center against LeBron James and the two-time defending champion Miami Heat. League-wide, the NBA released schedules for all teams Tuesday night.

Aside from Miami, another gem of a game comes only a few days later, when Cleveland and former Sixers bench staple Andrew Bynum play the front-end of a home-and-home series in South Philly Nov. 8. Bynum and Co. make a repeat trip to town Feb. 18.

Other highlights to the home portion of the Sixers' schedule include:
Jrue Holiday's first game at Wells Fargo in a visiting team's colors, when New Orleans visits Nov. 29; Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce with division rival Brooklyn Dec. 20, the Sixers' final home game before their annual lengthy holiday road trip; Miami's return and final appearance in Philly Jan. 17; and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers making weekend trips, Jan. 25 and Feb. 7, respectively.

(AP)

The 76ers are quite fond of this Nerlens Noel guy, enough so to give him as much time as possible to rehab that surgically repaired left knee of his.

Sam Hinkie likes him enough to escort him to an appointment Wednesday with an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, to visit Noel while he rehabs in Birmingham, Ala., to “give him all the resources necessary and all of the best medical people we can put in front of him.”

Noel can be a difference-maker for the Sixers, who introduced the 19-year-old center Tuesday in a press conference at PCOM. For now the 6-10 center is a project, being that he won’t be able to debut for the team until after New Year’s Day, perhaps at the earliest (though no one was willing to establish a timetable for Noel’s return to competitive play.)

Having seen what the Sixers went through last season with Andrew Bynum, who sat out last season with a bevy of knee injuries, Noel said he wants to do everything in his power to play next season as well as win over Philly fans.

“There’s always been a lot of pressure,” he said. “You’ve got to seize the moment. If you want to be a great player, you’ve got to be able to play under pressure. I think I will do good with this pressure of being the sixth pick in the draft. With time to develop myself and my game, I think I’ll be a very good player.”

A few more tidbits from Tuesday’s press conference:

• On the coach search. Hinkie, no surprise, does not feel any pressure to take as much time as possible to find the Sixers’ next coach. He wouldn’t confirm reports that they’ve narrowed the field to two candidates, nor would he say who he’s interviewed.
• On Royce White. Hinkie said he has “no plan at this time” for the integration of Royce White into the Sixers’ system. White, a No. 16 selection by Houston in the 2012 draft, did not play for the Rockets last season while battling anxiety issues. The Sixers acquired him this offseason. “Royce and I have talked about it a bit and it’s the kind of thing we’ll talk about more when he comes,” Hinkie said.
• On Jrue Holiday. When Hinkie spoke of the draft-day trade for Noel, you got the sense that the GM was torn a bit in having to send Holiday, the All-Star point guard, to New Orleans as part of the deal. But netting Noel and a potential lottery pick wasn’t such a bad return, he said. “To lose (Holiday) is not easy,” Hinkie said, “but we’re happy to have (Noel).”

(AP)

The 76ers will introduce Nerlens Noel in a 1 p.m. press conference Tuesday, nearly a month after they traded for the Kentucky freshman.

Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie and Noel will be at PCOM for the early-afternoon presser, making official – at least from the Sixers' end – the transaction made June 27 on draft night. The Sixers sent Jrue Holiday and the rights to their 2013 second-round draft choice to the New Orleans Pelicans for Noel and a top-five-protected 2014 first-round draft selection.

The Pelicans introduced Holiday, a 22-year-old All-Star point guard, in a press conference July 12.

A number of factors contributed to the trade hold-up. Hinkie and the Sixers brass had been in Florida for the team's involvement in the Orlando Pro Summer League, all the while Holiday – who was married recently – was on his honeymoon and therefore couldn't sign trade papers. Last week, Hinkie was in Las Vegas for a summer league out that way, thus pushing any possible announcement to this week.

Noel, a 19-year-old, 6-10 center, has not played competitively since tearing the ACL in his left knee Feb. 12. He's not expected to be healthy enough to debut for the Sixers until December at the earliest.

Widely anticipated to be taken first overall in the 2013 NBA draft, Noel slid to No. 6 due to health concerns related to his knee surgery. The Pelicans selected him sixth overall. Noel averaged 10.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in 24 games in his only season at Kentucky, earning SEC Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year distinctions.

Noel is expected to be a key contributor to the Sixers' rebuilding process that's being steered by Hinkie. The team has only one veteran (Thaddeus Young) under contract beyond the upcoming season. The Sixers would have to make a qualifying offer of $8.7 million in order to make counteroffers to Evan Turner in the offseason, while Jason Richardson -- who's recovering from new surgery -- has a player option for the 2014-15 campaign. Every other veteran on the roster has an expiring contract.

(AP)

The 76ers’ draft-day trade with New Orleans for rookie center Nerlens Noel will become official today, with the Pelicans hosting a 7:30 p.m. press conference to introduce Jrue Holiday.

The deal was delayed because Holiday had been on his honeymoon and could not sign the trade papers. Also, Wednesday was the first day on which trades could be announced, per NBA rules.

(AP)

The Sixers sent Holiday and the 42nd pick in last month’s draft to New Orleans in exchange for the rights to Noel and a partially lottery-protected, first-round pick in next year’s draft. (The Hornets would keep the pick should they be slotted anywhere in the draft’s top-five selections.)

In need of an impact post player, the Sixers made the aggressive move June 27 to swap Holiday, a 22-year-old All-Star point guard, for Noel, a 19-year-old center who’s rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn ACL. Noel, widely viewed as one of the draft’s top talents, slid to No. 6, where the Pelicans selected him.