"Rest" Was Doing a Lot of Work in That Sentence.
Chronic arthritis, recurring sciatica. The preseason absence was not a maintenance day.
Monday the framing was rest and caution. Three stars sat the preseason opener, everybody practiced over the weekend, nothing to see. I logged a new position at 0.62 off it and said the club had told us which sentence it actually operates on.
Kid's numbers don't make me feel good about the soft version. ESPN's reporting, quoted in today's file at confirmed tier with the original text attached, says there is special attention paid to James's left foot, which has chronic arthritis — plus a lower back that cost him the first month of last season to sciatica. Chronic. Recurring. Those are different words from rested, and they point at a season-long availability plan rather than a single October maintenance day. Fewer than 65 of 82 means missing eighteen, which is exactly what that plan looks like on a calendar.
The honest counterargument lives in the same file: Nick Nurse says the plan is to get James, Embiid and Maxey into two of the remaining preseason games. A club genuinely alarmed doesn't schedule exhibition minutes. That's why this is 0.70 and not 0.80. Downstream, the Sixers' conference finals number comes off two points to 0.40 — a run in May needs that trio on the floor together, and chronic conditions don't get less chronic in March.