The Sixers went to work quickly after opening up a two-way contract slot when they waived Dakota Mathias last week.
The team intends to sign Rayjon Tucker to a two-way deal, sources confirmed Friday to NBC Sports Philadelphia. The Athletic’s Shams Charania first reported the news.
Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey later welcomed Morey to the team via Twitter.
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Tucker, 23, was the Clippers’ final cut this preseason. In the 2019-20 campaign, he played in 20 games for the Utah Jazz and 16 for the G League’s Wisconsin Herd. Frank Mason, last year’s G League MVP and part of the Delaware Blue Coats’ roster for the upcoming season, played alongside Tucker on the Herd, who finished with the G League’s best record. The 6-foot-5 wing averaged 23.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists for Wisconsin.
Two-way players this season are eligible to spend up to 50 games with their NBA team. Since Tucker is joining the team during the season, the prorated maximum number of games he can spend with the Sixers is 39. Rookie power forward Paul Reed is the Sixers’ other two-way player and received rotation minutes when the team was shorthanded during a difficult stretch because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols.
Before waiving Mathias, here was the Blue Coats squad set to participate in the G League’s Disney World bubble season, which will feature 18 teams and begin next month:
Tucker is a strong, explosive athlete, as you can see from the highlight package below.
NBA
He’s also shown ability as a three-point shooter, making 38.6 percent of his 5.5 long-range attempts per game last season with the Herd. Two-way contracts are opportunities for teams to invest in players with the potential to grow into NBA rotation pieces, and it makes sense that a team might feel that way about Tucker.