Welcome home Dario Saric and Robert Covington!
The Minnesota Timberwolves will play in Philadelphia against the 76ers on Tuesday night. Saric will play, and it looks like Covington—who is has not played since Dec. 31st (bone bruise)—will travel to Philadelphia.
When asked about being traded, Saric gave Philly.com's Sarah Todd an emotional quote.
"I didn't trade myself. I never asked to leave," Saric said. "Philadelphia was my first NBA home. It always will be."
The Timberwolves, since acquiring Saric and Covington for Jimmy Butler, have gone 16-13 and have changed coaches from Tom Thibodeau to Ryan Saunders.
In 22 games with Minnesota, Covington was playing some of the best ball of his career averaging 14.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 43.3 FG% / 37.2 3P% / 77.3 FT%.
Saric is averaging just 23.0 minutes per game with the T-wolves and has struggled to find a consistent rhythm playing behind Taj Gibson.
Related: Sixers should trade Jimmy Butler
As for Butler, well he's already experiences highs and lows since joining Philadelphia. Butler hit two game winners in his first seven games with the team, but recently there has been a bit of turmoil when Adrian Wojnarowski reported Butler got heated with head coach Brett Brown during a film session.
Butler's averaging 18.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.8 steals in 25 games with the Sixers taking just 2.8 three's per game. Butler hasn't averaged less than 20 points since 2013-14 and hasn't averaged less than 3.0 three's attempted since 2012-13. The Sixers are 6-4 over their last 10 games and 28-16 overall, 4.5 games back of the first place Raptors.
Tonight is the start of a brutal 13 games stretch.
From Jan. 15 to Feb. 12, the #Sixers have an insane stretch of 13 games, 11 on national TV:MIN - NBATV@ IND - TNTOKC - ABCHOU - TNTSA - ESPN@ DEN@ LAL - TNT@ GS - TNT@ SACTOR - TNTDEN - ESPNLAL - ABCBOS - TNT
— Andrew Porter (@And_Porter) January 3, 2019
