Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Korkmaz surfaces as a long-shot candidate
PHILADELPHIA >> The first time the Sixers miss three consecutive regular-season three-point opportunities, Brett Brown will brace for more than one kind of rebound.
The second time, he will hold his ears.
The third time, he will pretend not to see.
But no matter how much the customer base will howl about JJ Redick or Robert Covington or, reaching just a bit, Marco Belinelli, Brown will not waver.
The 76ers, he insists, will not be as lousy a shooting team as is roundly felt.
“Time will tell, but I don’t think it’s as big of a problem as maybe the marketplace does,” Brown said Friday before a preseason game against the Washington Wizards. “I think we have shooters here. Are they at the standard of JJ Redick? No. But if that’s the bar, well, it’s pretty high.
“So as you go through the list of players, although you are not seeing a highvolume, low-40-42-44-percent shooter on the roster, I still have confidence that we have a team that can shoot. Will that be our identity? No. Will it be needed? Yep. But I think we are a better shooting team than what I sense the marketplace thinks.”
Whatever that marketplace has in mind, Brown has given both lineup and verbal indications of some measure of concern that he will enter the season next week without any Sixer likely to put on a distance shooting show in warmups.
Friday, with Ben Simmons resting a sore back for a second consecutive game, Brown again shifted Josh Richardson from the perimeter to the point and started Furkan Korkmaz for a second consecutive game. While Korkmaz is not likely to be one of Brown’s earlier bench selections in the regular season, it was an indication that the Sixers are still looking for someone who would not be out of place in a three-point contest.
“I’ve seen a lot from him,” Brown said. “He was always a willing defender. Furkan is good people. So it wasn’t like you were pulling teeth to get somebody to guard. He is an older player. Playing in the world championships with Turkey, he played a lot. They relied on him. He has become a better defender.
“And we are always just trying to mine shooters. We are trying to find and mine and help cultivate shooters. And if he is anything, he is that.”
Korkmaz was demoted to the minors midway through last season, mentioning at the time that he wasn’t thrilled with the chances he’d gotten to show his skills. But he has recovered and, as the preseason dripped to a close, was high enough in the rotation to have a chance to win meaningful in-season minutes.
“He’s fighting,” Brown said. “And this year he is doing that on a team that we believe is a championship contender. So the fight is even harder. That’s the phase and the stage the young man is at. I give him credit for not blinking. He didn’t just go away. And now, here he is.” With Richardson starting a second consecutive preseason game at the point, it is growing more clear that he will be the first alternative to Simmons to run the offense.
With that, he knows he will be responsible not just for defending and scoring, but for distributing the ball to so many talented teammates.
“The way I play, I kind of facilitate anyway,” Richardson said. “I think the biggest thing about changing to the one is play-calling, knowing when to slow a play down, or when to be aggressive, and making sure everybody is on the same page.”
“I try to make sure everybody feels involved, that they all feel they are getting a play call every now and then. Because I know how that feels now and then, when you just feel like you’re out of it and are just running up and down. So I don’t want guys to feel like that.” Minutes after Brown had reiterated his belief that the Sixers will contend this season for a championship, there was an echo down the hall. Washington coach Scott Brooks believes the Sixers are that good, too.
“A championship contending team,” the former Sixer said. “They are right there. The last couple of years they have been right there. This year, another step. They’ve added a couple of real good players. They are going to be there at the end.
“They have everything. They have experience. They have length. They have bigs. They have shooters. They can switch. They have IQ. And Al Horford can do all those things. He is a great addition.” • • NOTES >> Raul Neto missed a late chance to bob higher in the backup point-guard battle, missing the game with left hamstring tightness. … Recovered from a calf injury, James Ennis was cleared to play. … As a preseason workload concession, Richardson was to be limited to roughly one half of action Friday. … Joel Embiid was approved to play with no restrictions. … The Sixers will open the regular season Wednesday night at 7:30 against the visiting Boston Celtics.