Brown has deep reservations about changing his rotations
CAMDEN, N.J. » Ever since it was clear that he had a likely playoff team, Brett Brown would regularly unload with one unwavering wail: It will be different in the spring.
Long an assistant to Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, where deep postseason runs were common, Brown understood that the NBA playoffs would be played differently, officiated differently and, it would seem, coached differently. Well … not so fast. Given that the Sixers very seldom lose, and understanding that the comfort of their rotations has yielded vital locker-room peace, Brown hinted Friday that he may not engage in the usual NBA coaching postseason custom of benchshortening.
“The game sort of speaks to you,” Brown said, after practice. “You go into it where I am going to try to do what we have been doing, then pivot out of it if I feel the need to.”
The first chance for that game-whispering will occur Saturday night at 8, when the Miami Heat visits the Wells Fargo Center for the Sixers’ first playoff game since 2012. Without Joel Embiid, who continues to recover from surgery on his left-eye orbital bone, Brown’s options will be fewer. They will not necessarily be limited.
Brown will start Amir Johnson at center until Embiid recovers. That could be an issue against roll-to-thebasket force Hassan Whiteside. With that, Brown’s pivoting could begin, with the option to pair Ersan Ilyasova and Dario Saric in the front court, a unit that has proven highly successful.
All Brown knows is that he is not going to change things just because he no longer has to brush the snow off his car on his way to the game.
“I always have to remind ourselves that we have won 16 games in a row,” Brown said. “We are 25-and-1 at home since Christmas. We’re doing OK. And to try to overthink it, especially in Game 1, is not going to happen. And we’re going to take this slow and be mindful of what got us here, who we are, and just continue to do it, and do it, as I say, harder, better, longer.”
The Sixers and Heat split the four-game season series, each winning their home games. Without Embiid as a deterrent, Whiteside could be a handful. And veteran combo guard Goran Dragic, 32, had one of his better seasons. Despite being slowed by a bruised knee, will play in Game 1.
With a young team, Brown is concerned about the experience of Miami, which can drag Dwyane Wade off the bench and expect at least some familiar Hall of Famelevel contributions.
“They played us hard this year,” J.J. Redick said. “They were physical with us, especially down in Miami. They run multiple actions on offense, so you really have to defend for the whole shot clock. They have a deep roster with a bunch of guys who play hard and play well together. It’s a huge challenge for us.”
For five years as the Sixers’ coach, Brown has sought a fast-paced offense, accurate ball-movement and precise three-point shooting. This season, he finally had the required personnel. And without Embiid for the last eight games, the Sixers played even faster and shot even quicker.
With Redick, Marco Belinelli, Saric, Robert Covington and Ilyasova, the Sixers can be magical from beyond the arc. That depth, and their passing, will be a challenge to the older Heat. So it follows that Brown will be open to going deep on his bench, to present multiple backcourt looks and to go small when necessary. If that means going three deep at point guard, with Ben Simmons, Markelle Fultz and T.J. McConnell, he will do that too.
As he said, his team is doing “OK.” “The depth of the rotation, how many we play, that will evolve over the course of a series,” Brown said. “But to over-think it and try something that we really haven’t done, and we’ve had some recent success, would be a mistake.” Dragic