Ryan Broekhoff's Status is Uncertain After not Traveling With 76ers

When the Philadelphia 76ers packed up and left for Orlando, Florida, this past Thursday, the team was missing a couple of players. For one, they were without the second-year guard, Zhaire Smith. As Smith is dealing with a knee injury, the young guard decided to stay back and rehab throughout the NBA's restart. The second player to not travel with the Sixers happens to be the newest acquisition, Ryan Broekhoff.

Last month, the Sixers added Broekhoff to the roster with a substitute contract. As the team's three-point shooting situation is still unproven heading into the restart, Brett Brown, Elton Brand, and the rest of the Sixers' front office looked at the Australian wing as a potential positive addition.

When speaking to Broekhoff about potentially joining the Sixers for the season's restart, Brett Brown didn't sugarcoat the situation. In fact, he made it very clear to Broekhoff that opportunities to get on the court are going to be hard to come by if he does join the 76ers this summer. Brown talked the situation down so much that he was surprised Broekhoff decided to sign with the Sixers in the end.

"I downplayed it more than anything," Brown admitted a couple of weeks back. "I don't want to mislead him or anybody. I believed when I hung up the phone, he was either going to go to Europe or somebody else was going to recruit him better than I did."

But Brown did a fine job of recruiting Broekhoff because the following day after their meeting, the second-year wing decided to sign on with Philly. Many were under the assumption that Broekhoff would get started on his Sixers stint this week in Orlando, but it seems the newest 76er is delaying the process for undisclosed reasons.

"Ryan Broekhoff did not travel with the team to Orlando on Thursday afternoon," Serena Winters of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported on Saturday. Winters noted that Broekhoff's reasoning for not traveling was "due to personal reasons." Team officials had no further updates on why Broekhoff didn't travel -- or even when the Australian wing will come to join the NBA's bubble. 

Before the ramp-up process of the restart even began, opportunities were going to be challenging to come by for Broekhoff. Now that he's absent for the beginning of camp, the situation only gets tougher. 

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_