As training camp opens, 76ers are deep in talent
CAMDEN, N.J. » It took four years of disgrace, a couple of general managers, several dozen marginal NBA players and Josh Harris looking the other way, but the 76ers Tuesday will have reached a significant franchise checkpoint.
Finally, after years of 10-day contracts, of hoarding second-round draft picks and of tolerating Sam Hinkie using the word trope, the Sixers will bring a responsible, intriguing basketball team to the South Jersey waterfront for a for-real NBA training camp. Already? “It all built to this moment,” said Bryan Colangelo, the team president. “We have a mantra: ‘Welcome to the moment.’ It’s upon us. And we need to act on it.”
Colangelo wasn’t declaring the ever-annoying process complete. Indeed, he warned that it may never end. But he was seeing what everyone else was seeing. And what they are seeing is a problem, but a good problem for any team. For when Brett Brown finally strolls onto the floor at the Sixers’ training center and whistles his first practice of the season to order, he will face a mob scene.
The Sixers, yes, have too many players.
After years of trying multiple minor-leaguelevel point guards, they have plenty of quality ones, including the last two No. 1 overall NBA draft picks in Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz, and proven pro players T.J. McConnell and Jerryd Bayless. Though Joel Embiid is not fully healthy (no, for real, that’s not a lie), they have multiple capable big men. They have enough shooters to be more than presentable in the 21st-century game, with J.J. Redick and Robert Covington and Nik Stauskas.
They have swing men and rebounders and players who can play multiple positions. They had two of the three Rookie of the Year finalists from last season, and figure to have two leading candidates this time. This is how deep the Sixers are in options: Dario Saric doesn’t even have a set position or a promise of starting, and he is the Sixers’ best player, skill for skill.
“It’s hard to know what role I will have,” Saric was saying on the eve of camp. “Me and Ben can handle the ball. He can pass and I can pass. We have some guys who can shoot, some guys who can pass. Everybody will share the ball. And that will be easier to make people in Philly happy.”
The Sixers never hid their plan. They would lose, retreat to multiple draft lotteries, collect assets, spend a little money and one day show up in Camden with something that looked like a competitive NBA team. At some point, there will be another step. That will be when they grow competitive enough to be able to successfully recruit at least one max-contractlevel, accomplished, veteran free agent. But they are where they need to be in their progression. That’s because they are heading to training camp with players expecting and expected to win often enough to play past Game 82.
“I hate to use the word,” McConnell said. “But my first year here we were tanking. And it was noticeable. This year, if we are healthy, we should make the playoffs. And there is a different aura around the city. People were excited that first year. But it is nothing like this year.”
Since there wasn’t much of a how-to manual for what the Sixers would try, there isn’t a step-by-step plan for what to do next. Brett Brown knows that the plan will not work if most of the tanked-for players do not flourish. And since Simmons can’t shoot but does have a mystical court vision, Brown will ask him to run the offense. Coming off a season-ending knee injury, Embiid is expected to be ready by the October 18 regular-season opener in Washington. When right, he is an MVP-level talent. From there, Brown will try to loosen a roster knot that took so long to tie.
Covington, an elite wing defender. Fultz may fit in the backcourt with Simmons. Redick is on a oneyear, $23 million deal and will upgrade the shooting. There’s Saric. There’s Amir Johnson, a 12-year pro, a big man who can defend. Richaun Holmes looked good last season. The Sixers will drag 20 players to work Tuesday. There are at least a dozen who could be helpful big-league starters.
No, Brown is not coaching “gypsies” any more.
“This feels like last year, but we have enhanced it with Amir Johnson and J.J. Redick,” Colangelo said. “And with Fultz coming in and with the knowledge we have about Joel Embiid, it is safe to say we are more prepared to take that step forward this year. And we are excited for whatever that means.”
It means a little pressure. It means opportunity. It means that the excuse-bin has been emptied. It means Brown will be expected to win more than he loses. But mostly it means that there is a pro basketball season about to start in Philadelphia that is something more than a reason to make faces.
“It looks really good,” Embiid said, “as long as we stay healthy.”
He’s right. For the moment, as Colangelo said, the 76ers do look really good. And that beats anything else they’d offered in recent years.