Report: Sixers have added Phil Beckner, Damian Lillard’s longtime trainer, as consultant

Fair to say, it has been an underwhelming offseason for the Philadelphia 76ers thus far. Sure, Jaden Springer seems like a great value pick at 28th overall. And Georges Niang could be a helpful bench piece. But the blockbuster Ben Simmons trade has yet to happen, and the team looks to be losing leverage by the day. Waiving George Hill when he could have been at least a helpful matching contract in a trade was a bit puzzling, and who knows what’s going on with Danny Green.

So Sixers fans are thirsting for any positive news, even if something is largely innocuous. Enter: this report from Yaron Weitzman.

Obviously, everyone’s eyes are drawn to the “Damian Lillard” bit of this report. Beckner was on staff for seven years at Weber State, overlapping with Lillard’s time at the school. Following his time there, Beckner was on staff at Nebraska, Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate, and Boise State. He has spent the past couple years as a player development consultant, which looks to be his role now in conjunction with the Sixers.

Of course, Lillard has been pretty outspoken about not demanding a trade, even getting into a public back-and-forth with Henry Abbott on Twitter regarding the matter. I doubt having an old coach and trainer be associated with the team in an extremely part-time fashion is suddenly vault Philadelphia to must-move-to status in Dame’s mind.

So this is probably nothing. Or is it the final key to everything falling into place??? It’s probably nothing.