(AP)

Khalif Wyatt sat in the 76ers’ locker room Wednesday, before their preseason finale, and said he was still living in Norristown, his hometown, with his mother. He had expressed a desire to wait until he earned a roster spot with the Sixers before he bought his own place.

Then Thursday’s news trickled down.

The 76ers released Wyatt and fellow guard Vander Blue and forwards Royce White and Mac Koshwal Thursday night, according to a league source.

The team has until Monday at 5 p.m. to make at least one more cut, to be in compliance with league guidelines, prior to Wednesday’s season opener. Three of the Sixers’ cuts are somewhat surprising, as Wyatt and Blue were believed to be competing for the same job, and White, who has had a brief yet tumultuous run in the NBA, appeared to have found a home.

Sixers coach Brett Brown hinted that the first round of cuts would come Thursday.

"When I put my coaching hat on ... you want to get your group and start moving,” he said after the team’s preseason finale. “And that's what (Thursday) will be about."

White, Houston's first-round pick in the 20

12 draft, missed his rookie season while dealing with anxiety issues and a fear of flying. Traded to Philly in the offseason as more of a salary dump measure for the Rockets than anything else, White looked comfortable with the Sixers, who had allowed him to drive – rather than fly – to a pair of preseason games.

Additionally, White gave the Sixers muscle in the middle for a roster that's lacking in frontcourt talent. He averaged five points and seven rebounds in five preseason games.

Wyatt and Blue, both of whom received partially guaranteed contracts as undrafted rookies, looked to be vying for one roster spot that neither ended up getting, as far as Brown was concerned.

However, the writing was on the wall for both to be cut. Wyatt, the Temple product by way of Norristown, and Blue, out of Marquette, tellingly were not inserted into Wednesday night's preseason finale until the final five minutes.

Koshwal, a deep reserve, appeared in three exhibitions.

(AP)

If you believe what he and his coach are saying, Royce White will make his debut with the 76ers Friday night in their exhibition against Boston.

The forward, who said the decision to not travel with the Sixers for their two preseason games in Europe was an organizational move, called the time away from the team “bittersweet.” But both White and Sixers coach Brett Brown said the second-year man is expected to play against the Celtics at University of Delaware’s Carpenter Center.

“I look forward to playing Royce tomorrow,” Brown said after Thursday’s practice.

“I want to be able to show I can play and get with my teammates in a setting where we can play with each other and not against each other,” White said. “I haven’t been on Evan (Turner)’s or Thaddeus (Young's) or Spence (Hawes’) team since in the summer when we were playing open gym.”

White said he worked out with (yet to be announced officially) Sixers assistant Curtis Sumpter while the team was overseas.

“I was bummed at points while they were gone and, at other points, I was glad I didn’t have to make that flight,” said White, who suffers from an anxiety disorder.

As of now, White said he and the Sixers do not have a plan for how they’ll handle his travel this season.

“We haven’t looked too far ahead. We’re going time by time, and that’s the best way with any anxiety disorder or OCD or PTSD or whatever you want to call it,” White said. “It’s not a plan-ahead kind of thing; it’s a right-here-on-the-spot kind of thing. One day you could feel one way, and the next you could feel a different way. We’re taking it game by game.”

(AP)

Royce White doesn’t want you to believe everything you read.

A fear of flying? An untrue report, he said. White, the second-year forward acquired by the 76ers from Houston this offseason, attempted to clear up public misconceptions about his anxiety disorder Friday at the Sixers’ media day proceedings. It was believed White sat out his entire rookie season because of a fear of flying.

“Glaring,” White said of the error, in speaking to reporters Friday at the 76ers’ media day. “When we went to negotiate my travel arrangements last year with the Rockets, the plan was and always will be from now on in this league is to fly when I have to and drive when I can. That was the plan we had.”

White said he hopes to work out a similar arrangement with the Sixers. He said having the option to drive to games occasionally in an RV while with Rio Grande, Houston’s NBADL affiliate, “was really cool.”

(Christopher A. Vito)

“It’s a bonus for me to be here, to have a chance, for Sam to take a chance on me again,” White said of Sam Hinkie, the Sixers’ general manager who drafted White as a member of Houston’s front office. “I don’t like to look at it as a second chance or a last chance. I like to look at it as my first chance.”

No matter where you stand on Royce White, he had an awesome sneaker choice Friday at PCOM.

(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).”

Getting younger and trimming their spending have been the prevailing trends of the 76ers’ offseason, and they continued that trend Friday night when they traded with Houston for second-year forward Royce White.

In the move, which was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Sixers surrendered “future considerations”, which would probably end up being either a second-round draft pick or an overseas prospect.

In other words, the Sixers did the Rockets a favor – and here’s why.

White, a 6-8, 270-pounder who was the 16th overall pick in the 2012 draft, has yet to make his NBA debut. He did not play a single game for the Rockets last season. Instead, he suited up for their Development League team. At first, he refused the D-League assignment and picked up a suspension because of a “refusal to provide services” laid out in his contract. It’s also been reported that White battles anxiety issues and a persistent fear of flying.

Due to make $1.71 million this season, White posted per-game averages of 11.4 points and 5.7 rebounds in 16 games with Rio Grande, the Rockets’ D-League affiliate.

White joins a revamped Sixers roster that includes Kentucky’s Nerlens Noel, for whom they traded on draft day, as well as draft picks Michael Carter-Williams and Arsalan Kazemi.

The Sixers launch their Orlando Summer League slate Sunday.