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According to a report by Philly.com, former Penn State point guard Tim Frazier's time in the NBA is over for now. The Philadelphia 76ers have made a decision on Frazier's future, and unfortunately the squad has decided to move on from the ex-Nittany Lion. Here's the full report from Keith Pompey:
Tim Frazier’s tenure with the 76ers is over.
The franchise opted not to sign the point guard to a second 10-day contract. Frazier’s contract expired at 12 a.m. Sunday. The former Penn State standout averaged 5 points and 8.7 assists in three games with the Sixers.
By not resigning him, the Sixers now have an available roster spot to take on an expiring contract before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.
Frazier suited up three times for Philly and helped lead the team to a 1-2 record. While it wasn't pretty at times, Frazier did a really good job running a team that is -- for lack of a better word -- pretty bad. The Sixers are a squad that was built to suck this year, but with Frazier running the show, Philly's offense looked pretty solid. He did an admirable job setting up his teammates, and while he averaged 8.7 assists over three games, he easily could have been in double digits in that category with the amount of open jumpers his teammates missed (which isn't a knock on anyone, just saying, the Sixers got a lot of open jumpers with Frazier at the point).
Unfortunately, Frazier was killed by two things: the fact that he struggled from the field, and the timing of his contract expiring. His five points per game weren't necessarily a bad thing, but he shot 22.2 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from the free throw line. While that probably would have gotten better with some more time, it's still a pretty bad look, especially because he was given the freedom to take as many shots as he wanted within Philly's offense.
The timing of Frazier's contract expiring is extra peculiar, and the fine folks at Liberty Ballers did a good job explaining why this really hurt Frazier. Basically, it doesn't make much sense to sign a player to a 10-day deal during a time when the league is taking a break for the All Star game, and with the NBA's trade deadline occurring on Thursday, having an open roster spot gives the Sixers extra flexibility in deal making. Along those lines, The LB Gang™ also pointed out that Frazier could always come back later in the year, so this isn't the end of the world.
Still, it kind of sucks that Frazier's getting the axe. I'm willing to bet that he's going to pop up somewhere in the next month or so -- there will always be a place in the NBA for point guards who can run an offense, play solid defense and put their teammates in a position to knock down shots -- but for now, Tim Frazier's going to have to settle for ripping apart the NBA's D-League again.
Update: So this may be good news, or it may be bad news. We don't know for sure because we couldn't break down the hardcore reportering that happened here. HOWEVER, it looks like there's a chance that the Sixers and Frazier are going to try and work something out over the coming days.
Am told though #Sixers didn't resign Tim Frazier today, they may or may not over the next few days.
— Bob Cooney (@BobCooney76) February 16, 2015
See what we said about the hardcore reportering? But yeah, based on this, it looks like the Sixers are at least somewhat interested in bringing Frazier back.
If Philly wants to bring Frazier back, it can go about it in two ways. First is the obvious way, which is to sign him to a contract for the rest of the year or possibly for many years because he is going to be a Hall of Famer. However, since they're probably more realistic than I am, the squad will likely attempt to sign him to his second 10-day contract. Like with the first deal he signed, a 10-day deal lasts for either 10 days or three games, whichever comes later.
Let's hypothetically say the Sixers come to their senses and go with another 10-day contract, and Frazier plays well enough that they want to sign him to another deal. Based on the way contracts work in the NBA, Philly would need to bring him on for the rest of the year.
Also important: Frazier doesn't need to play on consecutive 10-day deals with Philly. If some other team decided that they wanted to retain his services, they could, but if at the end of that deal Philly wanted to bring him back, it would still only get to bring him back for one more 10-day deal before making a decision on the rest of the year.
So yeah, things are looking up for Tim. We'll keep you updated if anything else happens with him over the next few days.