The Sixers' nightmare month got even worse Tuesday.
"Following consultation with multiple hand specialists, which included a review of additional imaging," star guard Tyrese Maxey was diagnosed with "a tendon injury to the small finger on his right hand," the team announced before its game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Maxey is set to be re-evaluated in three weeks.
That's the last thing the short-handed Sixers needed amidst a 4-8 swoon over their past 12 games.
Even if Maxey is cleared in exactly three weeks, he's now poised to miss the Sixers' next 11 games. At most, there will be seven regular-season games left for him to play in before the postseason begins.
That could cost him his first-ever All-NBA nod.
The 65-game rule strikes again
In the NBA's infinite wisdom, its latest collective bargaining contains a provision that requires players to appear in at least 65 games—and play at least 20 minutes in 63 of them—to be eligible for end-of-season awards such as Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year or the All-NBA teams.
Maxey, who's averaging a career-high 29.0 points per game and appeared destined for his first All-NBA nod, is four games short of that requirement. If he doesn't get cleared by April 6, he will not be able to appear in 65 games and will automatically be disqualified from winning those individual accolades.
Thanks to the 65-game rule, stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and LeBron James are already ineligible for those awards. If Nikola Jokić misses two more games, he'll be disqualified as well.
More to come...
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Unless otherwise noted, all stats viaNBA.com,PBPStats,Cleaning the Glass orBasketball Reference. All salary information viaSpotrac and salary-cap information viaRealGM.
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