By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 
When the Sixers brought in Jerryd Bayless to become a member of the team, he brought a level of maturity and experience that the team had hoped would build up a team that was struggling due to the "Process years."
Unfortunately, Bayless has not been known to be one of the healthiest players out on the court. The Sixers signed Bayless to a contract during the 2016 offseason. In December 2015 and beyond with the Milwaukee Bucks, Bayless missed time on three separate stints due to a left ankle sprain, a re-injury and finally a left knee injury.
While not the same injury as before, Bayless was hit with the injury bug this past December with a torn ligament in his left wrist that required surgery. Bayless played only three games for the Sixers last season causing T.J. McConnell to receive more reps on the team and getting even greater looks.
But with Bayless back now, and looking healthy for the first time in a couple years, he has a chance to be a solid backup player for this Sixers team. A role they had envisioned for him last season, though never coming to fruition.
Head Coach Brett Brown speaks highly of the 29-year-old journeyman, and hopes that his role with the team will be a lot more valuable than just filling a roster spot.
Brett Brown referenced Manu Ginobili, Jamal Crawford and Eddie House (flashback!) when describing how he envisions Jerryd Bayless’ role.
— Jessica Camerato (@JCameratoCSN) September 28, 2017
With Markelle Fultz assuming the role of the main point guard for the Sixers, and Ben Simmons still in the hunt to be named the actual "point guard" of the team, Bayless will almost definitely be finding himself getting pulled from the bench, but with the generous comparison to Ginobili, perhaps the greatest sixth man of all-time, the statement makes me wonder if Brown sees a bigger role for Bayless than we were first led to believe.
I would probably take a guess and imagine that the role for Bayless is simply just an increase in his minutes, playing more off the bench than originally planned, but there's a reason he's still on the team after all.
The possible role increase of Bayless also might cut T.J. McConnell's time on the Sixers short at the end of training camp. While the love for T.J. is there, the amount of spots on the Sixers is simply not.
The future of McConnell will be closely monitored in the coming weeks, as Bayless continues to bounce back from his season ending wrist surgery in 2016.
