By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor
Perhaps the Philadelphia 76ers will be getting services from power forward Jonah Bolden this summer after all.
According to international basketball insider David Pick, the Sixers are hoping Maccabi Tel Aviv approves their request for the 2017 stash to play Summer League, which begins on Friday.
Source: Philadelphia, via the NBA, submitted a request for the Letter of Clearance to allow Maccabi Tel Aviv forward Jonah Bolden to join the 76ers for Summer League in Las Vegas.
— David Pick (@IAmDPick) July 4, 2018
Bolden, who was drafted with the No. 36 overall pick in 2017, is signed to play for Maccabi in Israel through this season. Pick recently reported that the Sixers were making the rights to Bolden available in trade talks, possibly as an asset for a Kawhi Leonard-type player.
Bolden averaged 7.6 points and 6.6 rebounds in Israeli League competition and 6.9 points, 5.5 rebounds in Euroleague action this past year.
The Sixers may want to see how Bolden plays with the team this summer, especially if they want to bring him over to Philadelphia sometime soon. Of course, if they do plan on using him as a trade chip, having him play against other young players in the NBA's Summer League might be the best bet for the Sixers, attracting teams more and more.
It's still unclear whether or not the Sixers are planning on buying out Bolden's contract for the upcoming season. The standard buy-out for a player on Maccabi is $400,000, which the Sixers shouldn't have any issues paying for if it comes to that.
It will be intriguing to see what the Sixers plan on doing with their backups this season, especially after trading for Wilson Chandler yesterday from the Nuggets.
UPDATE: According to Derek Bodner of The Athletic, the expectation is now for Jonah Bolden to play in the Summer League for the Sixers, after the request for permission to use the power forward was submitted to Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Following up on this, the expectation is that Bolden will join the summer league team, per source. https://t.co/NLRys4b8lt
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) July 4, 2018