April 01, 2017

Injured Sixers reportedly granted hardship exception, sign Alex Poythress

By Rich Hofmann
PhillyVoice Contributor

With Jahlil Okafor and Robert Covington now joining the Sixers walking wounded, the team was granted an injury hardship exception according to Adrian Wojnarowski. This basically means when there are four players on the inactive list — In the Sixers’ case that would be Mssrs Embiid, Simmons, Okafor, Covington, and Bayless — teams can temporarily open up a 16th roster spot.

So, who are the Sixers going to use that spot on? Per Woj, it will be former Kentucky forward Alex Poythress:

Sources: The NBA has awarded the 76ers an injury hardship exception, clearing way to sign Alex Poythress of D-League Ft. Wayne.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) April 1, 2017

Poythress was plying his trade for the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants, and his numbers are very good: 18.5 points and 7.1 rebounds on 53/40/78 shooting for one the league’s more successful teams at a 29-20 record. In case you were wondering, Poythress also does know how to dunk:

Most of us remember Poythress from his four-year career at Kentucky that many initially thought would be much shorter than that when he arrived in Lexington along with Nerlens Noel. The 6’7”, 215-pound forward battled some injuries and ended up playing four years, making two Final Fours. From just looking at his numbers, it’s encouraging to see he’s adding a three-point shot to his arsenal.

One thing is for sure, though: With the Sixers only having eight available players recently, Brett Brown’s trusted philosophy of “Shake a guy’s hand, put him in the game” should be back for the season’s final six games. My guess is that we’ll see Poythress in uniform and playing on Sunday night in Toronto.

Also, yes, this needed to be said: