Off-Day Notes: Injury Report, Additional Buyout Market Candidates

Joel Embiid is 'questionable' for tomorrow's road-trip finale against the Portland Trail Blazers with right knee injury management. Should he play, it will be his 32nd game of the season. He has missed 21 games. Embiid has scored at least 25 points in 9 of his last 10 games.

Paul George will miss his fifth of a 25-game suspension due to violation of the league's Anti-Drug program.

Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija is 'questionable' with a sprained low back.

Scoot Henderson is 'probable' with left hamstring injury management. Robert Williams III is 'questionable' due to left knee injury management.

Damian Lillard (left achilles tendon injury management), Kris Murray (sprained lumbar), Shaedon Sharpe (sore left calf) and Matisse Thybulle (right knee tendinopathy) are out.

Thybulle reunion?

When the Sixers take the court in Portland on Monday night, they'll visit old friend Matisse Thybulle. For those who don't remember how the last calendar year of Thybulle's Sixers tenure went, he was ineligible to join the Sixers in Toronto for a first-round playoff series in the early days after the height of the COVID pandemic because he was not fully vaccinated. The Sixers eventually won the series, but he never quite found a rhythm after that and was in a limited role for Philadelphia's second-round series against the Miami Heat.

Thybulle lasted up until the next season's trade deadline, when he was sent to Portland as part of a multi-team deal that landed Jalen McDaniels in Philadelphia for the last third of the season.

Since being dealt to the Trail Blazers, Thybulle has played 106 games over roughly three seasons out west. Thybulle is on an expiring deal for a Blazers team that is comfortably in the Play-In picture with him playing just four games this season. It would seem that he doesn't factor into Portland's long-term plan. He's an unrestricted free agent this sumer. There is basically no reason to keep him around.

So would Thybulle, who is just 29, be a decent fit in Philadelphia on a buyout?

Well, he's played just four games this season. He has shot the ball well by his own standards since departing Philadelphia, but the volume isn't significant enough to scare any defenses. You would largely be paying a prorated minimum to bring in a role player who adds spacing limitations to what the Sixers already have, which is average three-point shooting at best. That's simply counterproductive as Nick Nurse continues to lean into staggering Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey while Paul George is unavailable.

Thybulle has also missed basically all of this season with a knee injury and is currently considered week-to-week.

It goes without saying that that doesn't seem like something on which to burn a roster spot.

Cam Thomas goes off the board as another guard emerges

According to Shams Charania, the former Nets guard is signing with the Milwaukee Bucks. He came in third on our buyout rankings published earlier on Sunday. We can replace him with someone else, though. According to Henry Brown, D'Angelo Russell will not be required to report to the Washington Wizards after being traded to DC at the deadline. Russell is 29. He will be one of the youngest free agents on the market. There are shooting and passing skills there, even if Russell has long been a scatterbrain guard.

All of this speaks to just how helter skelter Quentin Grimes has been off this team's bench for quite a while. With Jared McCain now gone, the Sixers are one injury away from Kyle Lowry playing real minutes. This is a hole the Sixers have created themselves, but they simply need a playable reserve guard for insurance purposes if nothing else.