The Philadelphia 76ers have assigned Nerlens Noel to the Delaware 87ers of the NBA Development League.

The assignment is part of Noel's ongoing rehabilitation program for his left knee.

Noel will be a restricted free agent this offseason.

Sam Hinkie is on a noncompete in his contract until the end of the 16-17 season, which is causing him to treat it like a "gap year."

Hinkie relocated from Philadelphia to Palo Alto where he's staying busy with afternoon meetings and reading as much as possible.

“When I meet someone out here, I’ll say, ‘I’m kind of between gigs,’ ” Hinkie says in a length profile by Chris Ballard in Sports Illustrated. “Or, if I’m being cute, sometimes I’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m like a founder that got pushed out for professional management,’ and they’re like, ‘Oh, first time? That happened to me in ’85 and ’93 and ’02.’ ” He pauses. “There’s not the sense of shame for failure here that there is some other places.”

Hinkie compares taking over the Philadelphia 76ers in May of 2013 to joining a game of Monopoly midstream.

“You don’t have any real estate, all the hundreds are gone, and they’ve got Park Place,” said Hinkie.

After stepping down as general manager of the 76ers in May, Hinkie kept a low profile for several months but is beginning to go public again.

“I can’t afford to be quiet all the time. I learned that.”

Hinkie never liked the public part of his job with the 76ers. For this profile, Hinkie denied requests to talk to his wife and parents.

“The worst part of [a general manager’s] job is that it’s public,” he says. “And so I do as much as possible to protect the people I love because they didn’t choose this life, I did.”

“There’s a huge disconnect between who Sam is and who the world thinks he is,” says Than Powell, a grad school friend. 

Nerlens Noel believes he will soon ready to return from his minor knee surgery.

Brown re-joined the Philadelphia 76ers over the weekend.

"As of right now, I'm still feeling it out myself, probably around a couple of weeks," Noel said Monday. "I think I'm in a good place right now to start building back into game shape."

Brett Brown doesn't want to rush things. Brown thinks it will be more like a few weeks.

"I think realistically he hasn't done anything," Brown said. "To think that he's going to come back and play NBA basketball, to me, any sooner than that is a little bit far-reaching."

Brown said it would be very hard to get Noel minutes. He noted that the Sixers have Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Richaun Holmes, and Noel as centers all battling for playing time.

"It's going to be hard," he said. "You can talk about playing two of those guys together to free things up."

Nerlens Noel will return to Philadelphia this weekend to work out under the supervision of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Noel had surgery to repair inflamed tissue above his left knee on Oct. 24. He has been rehabilitating under the supervision of Kevin Wilk, the associate clinical director at Champion Sports Medicine in Birmingham, Ala.

Noel said his knee is to the point where he can resume his rehabilitation with the Sixers.

Noel has been sidelined since Oct. 6. 

The 76ers recalled Jerryd Bayless and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot from the Delaware 87ers on Wednesday.

Bayless, who’s overcoming a wrist injury, practiced with the Sevens on Monday and Tuesday.

The Sixers played the Houston Rockets on Monday in Texas and were off on Tuesday. Instead of taking Tuesday off, the seldom-used Luwawu-Cabarrot practiced with the Sevens.

Joel Embiid leads the NBA in three-point shooting at 66.7 percent, hitting six of his first nine attempts.

Embiid went 1-for-5 on three-pointers during his 28 collegiate games at Kansas.

With Embiid out for two seasons, he was able to improve his shooting.

The Philadelphia 76ers plan on reviewing Joel Embiid's minutes restriction around Christmas.

The 76ers are holding Embiid at 24 minutes or less per game.

Embiid missed the entirety of both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons because of a broken navicular in his right foot -- a bone that he broke two times.

"As I understand it, they will not escalate until Christmas and then it will only be judged," Brown said Saturday. "It may stay the same then, too."

The 76ers will keep Embiid on an even tighter restriction in back-to-back situations.

"There is always a judgment, a decision in relation to back-to-backs, but as a sort of a cut-off minute restriction, I believe that it's going to stay at 24 until Christmas," Brown said. "And then we'll judge that second third [of the season] after that first third ends. We'll judge that second third accordingly."

Embiid is averaging 30.3 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.9 blocks per 36 minutes through his first four games this season.

The Toronto Raptors have expressed interest in Nerlens Noel.

Noel will be a restricted free agent in the 2017 offseason and is part of the Philadelphia 76ers' logjam at center.

Jared Sullinger is out indefinitely for the Raptors due to a foot injury and they're currently starting Pascal Siakam at power forward. Toronto lost Bismack Biyombo in free agency and Noel could offer the Raptors some of the same elements.

Noel underwent what was described by the 76ers as an elective surgery on his left knee. Noel's return date has not yet been determined.

Joel Embiid is finally healthy after two seasons of sitting out following multiple foot surgeries and he looks like one of basketball's next great center.

The Celtics reportedly tried to trade up to pick Embiid in the 2014 NBA Draft.

"The Celtics were trying to trade the sixth pick that year, which ended up being Marcus Smart," said Bill Simmons. "They were trying to trade the sixth pick and the Brooklyn pick (17th overall pick) to move up to three to pick Embiid even though he was hurt."

Boston has since been linked to trade scenarios with the 76ers involving both Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor.

The Oklahoma City Thunder have acquired Jerami Grant from the Philadelphia 76ers for Ersan Ilyasova and a protected first round pick.

Grant averaged 9.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 26.8 minutes per game last season with the 76ers. Grant had a PER of 12.6 and TS% of .506 while shooting just 24.0 percent on three-pointers.

The future pick to the 76ers is protected 1-20 and it will be conveyed if it falls between 21 and 30.

The Thunder acquired Ilyasova as part of the Serge Ibaka trade with the Magic.