As the Sixers share their thoughts on a blockbuster trade, they also weigh in on how they’re handling their own rumors.
No one has to deal with the harsh reality that the NBA is a business more than players the week of the trade deadline.
While Philadelphia is nowhere near where they imagined when the 2025 deadline rolled around, there are still a handful of Sixers that have been thrown around in rumors.
“It’s only going to make it worse, if you worry about it,” Caleb Martin said at practice Monday, “[don’t] worry about stuff you can’t control.”
Focusing on what they can control, i.e., the games in front of them, has been the message from the team top to bottom on how they’re handling the week.
“It’s just another Sunday, tomorrow will be a Monday,” head coach Nick Nurse said in a recent pregame media availability, “whatever big news and rumors or whatever’s going on, we try to keep that away from the court and the film room and when the ball goes up.”
No Sixer has come up in more rumors than Guerschon Yabusele. He’s averaged 11 points on 51.5% shooting and a 40.2% three-point along with 5.5 rebounds this year after being out of the league for the previous five seasons.
Like the rest of his teammates, his focus has remained on improving this team.
“I don’t want to get my head into this a little bit too much, so I can just try to think about playing right now,” he said postgame after a loss to the Celtics. “Right now, I’m still a Sixers player and I’m hoping to stay a Sixers player and then we’re gonna go from there.”
He was even asked about a specific rumor to Boston, but didn’t seem too interested in discussing hypotheticals.
“Well, if something like that happened, then I will talk about it when it happens,” he said. “I’m more focused about it, you know, trying to get some wins, get back to the Play-In and of course get to the playoffs, trying to get to our goals.”
Staying focused on the games in front of you has become the cliche, but Yabusele remains just as invested as ever. Even when addressing his trade rumors he said he just wished he’d gotten the win that night, and said multiple times in his presser that, “we’ve been showing a lot of great things.”
As recent transactions have shown though, anything can happen in this league.
Yabu was able get a bit of a joke off, making sure to add, “Well, I feel like with what happened last night. Everybody’s in a place where you can be moved,” the day after the Luka Doncic trade.
Martin was similarly shocked as well.
“I think a lot of people thought it was fake at first, and me included,” Martin said, “that’s the business part of it, you know, which sucks.”
Even Nurse, who’s seen plenty of movement between stars throughout his time around the NBA, called the move “unprecedented.”
That league-altering trade looks to be the start of a pretty hectic week in the NBA. The Sixers, still in 11th place, might just have too many fires to put out themselves to worry about what the rest of the league gets done.
“I got enough to worry about my own team that I’m not trying to figure out what everybody else is doing,” said Nurse.
Even if this week isn’t business as usual, the Sixers just have to act like it is.