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Ariel Hukporti is officially done for the season with a torn Achilles. The Sixers don’t have an easy way to replace him, which is further exposing their already flimsy center depth behind Joel Embiid.
We’ve already covered why the Sixers can’t easily replace Hukporti. The TL;DR version: They’re hard-capped at the first apron and don’t have enough wiggle room under it at the moment to sign anyone other than an undrafted free-agent rookie. They’d have to waive Jabari Walker or dump salary to sign someone to a standard contract.
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The good news is that they do still have an open two-way spot, which they could use to sign someone as a stopgap solution. After all, they initially signed both Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker to two-way deals last year before converting both to standard contracts, so there’s recent history of them making good use of those spots.
With that in mind, we’ve taken a brief walk around the league to examine some training camp battles that could help the Sixers solve their backup center problem for now. Fair warning: These are not for the faint of heart.
Indiana Pacers
The Pacers have two bigs signed to Exhibit 10 deals, Rienk Mast and Keba Keita. Of the two, Mast might be the better bet. Mast is listed at 6’10” and 250 pounds on the Pacers’ training camp roster, while Keita is 6’8″ and 230 pounds.
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Mast spent his first three years of college at Bradley before transferring to Nebraska ahead of the 2023-24 campaign. He averaged 12.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 29.5 minutes per game across his 66 games at Nebraska, although he blocked only 26 total shots over those two years. On the bright side, he did shoot 32.5 percent from deep on 4.3 attempts per game, so he could add a floor-spacing element to the Sixers’ frontcourt.
Keita split his college career between Utah and BYU, but he never averaged more than 8.3 points or 7.9 rebounds in any of his four seasons. He was a better shot-blocker than Mast in college, but it’s hard to imagine that translating to the NBA given his height (or lack thereof).
The Pacers do still have one open roster spot, so they could always…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/7-training-camp-battles-could-205705417.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-07 20:57:00
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