Nov 8, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Bronny James (9) runs past Philadelphia 76ers guard Lester Quinones (25) during the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images
The Sixers are signing Pete Nance to a two-way contract, according to ESPN's Tim Bontemps.
To make room for Nance, they are waiving guard Lester Quinones from his two-way contract, per Michael Scotto.
Nance, a 6-foot-10 forward who played for Northwestern and North Carolina over five college seasons, has a total of 14 NBA minutes under his belt. He spent the 2023-24 season, his age-23 rookie season, in the Cleveland Cavaliers' organization.
The move comes after the team announced that Andre Drummond will miss the next three games with a sprained right ankle. Drummond departed Saturday's victory over the Detroit Pistons early in the first quarter after rolling the ankle fighting for a rebound.
The veteran big man will be re-evaluated this weekend, per a team official.
It's pretty simple: with Joel Embiid and Drummond out, the team isn't completely comfortable with playing any of its standard-contract bigs for extended minutes.
They can go small with Guerschon Yabusele and KJ Martin, but that works better in spurts than it does in long stretches. You can't even really claim that Nance has the requisite NBA experience to tower over the likes of Bona, Yabusele and Martin. What he does have over Yabusele and Martin is size.
So, the Sixers will plan for the lot of Bona, Yabusele and Martin to make up the center position while Embiid and Drummond are out. And when they inevitably run into foul trouble, Nance will be there to give it the good old college try.
Side note on the Nance family - Larry Nance Jr., Pete's older brother, is shooting 14-for-22 from three-point range this season. That blows my mind. One of my favorite random statistics of the season thus far.
