Sixers Notebook: Bynum might need surgery; Moultire earning minutes

Arnett Moultrie is starting to earn the trust of his teammates and coaches. He just needs to work on his conditioning a bit.

With each loss, it’s sounding less and less likely that Andrew Bynum will suit up for the Sixers this season.

Bynum ruffled a few feathers last Friday when he admitted that he didn’t want to risk shortening his career by playing with bum knees.

“I feel like it’s my life,” Bynum said. “I’m 25, and I don’t want to have no cartilage, because that’s really bad. I don’t want to play in pain.”

The 7-footer reportedly suffered a setback while practicing and he’s now considering arthroscopic surgery. Bynum is a free agent after the season. He’s earning $16.9 million in 2012-13.

“He’s unrestricted, he can go anywhere he wants to and it’s his career,” said Sixers GM Tony DiLeo. “That’s just something we’ll have to see. We just don’t have all the information now.”

DiLeon maintained that Bynum is still the team’s ‘Plan A.’ The Sixers are fighting for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, trailing Milwaukee by 6.5 games. They followed up an upset win over Golden State Saturday with a devastating loss to lowly Washington.

“Each and every day, just taking it game by game and just keep playing our hearts out,” said Thaddeus Young at Monday’s practice. “We did a lot of good things down the stretch [Sunday night] it’s just we couldn’t make shots.”

Getting Moultrie some burn

Rookie big man Arnett Moultrie is finally working his way into Doug Collins’ rotation. He scored six points in six minutes of action Sunday night, after finishing with four points in almost eight minutes Saturday. Moultrie’s teammates are excited by his progress.

“Wow, that dude is athletic,” Jrue Holiday said. “He can jump, you know, you see little spurts here and there. Arnett, I think he can really help us. He brings energy from the jump, somebody that can get rebounds and fight for rebounds and play above the rim.”

Collins admitted that sometimes he forgets about the 6-foot-10 Moultrie at the end of games. The coach wants to put his best five out there in crucial situations.

“Arnett is getting better, which is encouraging,” Collins said. “I talked to him about his conditioning, where he can get that up and play longer stretches.”

Each and every day, just taking it game by game, and just keep playing our hearts out. We did a lot of good things down the stretch [Sunday night] it’s just we couldn’t make shots.

JRUE

I realy think that we fight every game – we might get behind, get a deficit, but we fight.

COLLLINS

If you stay in this business long enough as a coach, you know, the greatest of the greatest have tasted it and you got to stay true to your teaching and understand what wins in this game and hopefully continue to plant the seeds with your team, so that regardless of the results right now, they’ll know what’s right.

Positive environment, continue to teach, young players need to grow

ON MOULTRIE

Arnett’s got to get out there more –

JRUE

Wow, that dude is athletic – he can jump, see little spurts here and there, Arnett I think can really help us .. he brings energy from the jump, somebody that can get rebounds and fight for rebounds and play above the rim

Arnett is getting better, which is encouraging – I talked to him about his conditioning where he can play longer stretches