CAMDEN, N.J. — The Sixers continue to wait for Paul George and Dominick Barlow’s green lights.
Neither George (left knee surgery recovery) nor Barlow (right elbow laceration) have been cleared yet for a return. Both were at the Sixers’ practice facility Friday. George ran through a post-practice shooting session with Jared McCain. Barlow sat on the sidelines with a multi-part brace on his right arm.
According to a team official, George will meet with doctors over the weekend to assess his recovery and determine next steps. Barlow will miss the Sixers’ weekend back-to-back vs. the Raptors and Pistons. He’s set for a follow-up visit with his surgeon on Monday.
George has been a regular practice participant for weeks.
“I think the last hurdle is he’s seeing the doctors this weekend,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “I think that’s the hurdle of them clearing him to play … the main thing. That’s it.”
The 5-3 Sixers rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating. They expect George to make them a better team on that end of the floor.
“He’s looked good,” Nurse said. “I think he’s moving very well, he’s shooting very well. … I’m like everybody out there in Sixers nation: I’m hoping the doc gives him the clearance so we can get him out there, even if it’s just to get him back in the flow of things. He’s going to help us. To me, he looks really good on defense. He’s just got such an instinctual feel for that end of the floor. And he’s got the size at 6-9, and there’s deflections and all that stuff.
“He’s really kind of a captain-type guy there. He knows what he’s doing and he helps other guys. … That would be useful as well.”
After starting the Sixers’ first two games, Barlow has been out since their Oct. 25 win vs. the Hornets.
His recovery has evidently not been simple.
“He still has that splint or partial cast, whatever it is, that’s making him keep his arm straight-ish,” Nurse said. “Again, the (laceration) was right on where it bends and that’s what’s causing the problems. He does have a follow-up on I believe Monday. Hopefully, he gets out of that thing and it’s healed. I’m going to be optimistic: I don’t see that being a super-long rehab. I think it just needs to get healed up and he should be good to go.”
Safe to say it’s not a typical injury.
“I’ve never seen that one,” Nurse said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, he cut himself.’ I’m like, ‘All right, patch him up and let’s get him back in there.’ That was like three weeks ago when I said that during the game. … So it falls under bizarre, yes.”
McCain returned to action Tuesday in the Sixers’ loss to the Bulls, although he’s still limited in several ways. He played 15 scoreless minutes in Chicago and then sat the next night against the Cavs with a “left knee injury recovery” designation.
The 21-year-old guard suffered a left knee lateral meniscus tear on Dec. 13 and a right thumb UCL tear on Sept. 25. On top of restricted minutes and new teammates, he’s adjusting to wearing a bulky brace on his knee.
“It feels unbalanced and it just feels like it’s super heavy, like you’re just lugging a whole leg. … And it’s just hard to move,” McCain said. “I said to family it’s like my mind wants to do something but my body’s not letting me. So it just takes getting used to. That’s what (Joel Embiid) said: It’ll take some time.”
McCain said he believes he’ll be re-evaluated in about a month and hopes to have the brace off “as soon as possible.”
For now, Nurse has to make do with restrictions for McCain and Embiid and the absences of George and Barlow. His key players are accumulating tons of early-season minutes; Tyrese Maxey’s 41.3 per game easily lead the NBA.
Will the Sixers change anything about how they approach back-to-backs moving forward?
“There’s a couple of things I think we’ve learned that we need to tweak,” Nurse said. “I wish I could tell you what they are, but I can’t, really. But there are some things. Mostly, I just want to try not to make such a big deal out of it being a back-to-back.
“I think that’s a good place to start mentally, a mindset of, ‘Let’s just play the game.’ It is talked about and there’s a million things going on because it’s a back-to-back, but I want to get us a little bit more into, ‘Let’s just play it like another game.’”
