Brown wants Simmons, Sixers to answer the call
CAMDEN, N.J. » Before he would order one training camp drill, install one new play, make one roster decision or reveal one lineup choice, Brett Brown gave the Sixers a game plan Saturday. Reach the NBA Finals. Really?
“You don’t set a goal,” Ben Simmons said, “unless you think you can reach it.”
Brown established the goal of playing in a June best-of-seven for the right to parade during a morning meeting with his 20 training-camp players at the practice center. A year ago, he’d told his team that the years of rebuilding were complete and that he and they must settle for nothing less than reaching the playoffs. That, they did, winning a round against Miami before falling in Round 2 to the Celtics.
For the Sixers to meet their coach’s demand this time, they will have to win three playoff series, not one. Brown, though, was clear: Be there in June.
“We want to play in the NBA Finals,” the coach said. “We want to play in the NBA Finals. We feel we could have played in the NBA Finals. I understand the magnitude of that statement. But I stand by it. And I own it. It is our goal to go play in an NBA Final.”
Given that two seasons ago, the Sixers were 28-54, that is an ambitious goal. Yet the operation had been set up by a controversial build-throughthe-draft process to yield a championship-level team. That deadline, Brown clearly believes, has arrived. And his team, he insists, is ready.
“It’s a respect of championship habits,” Brown said. “It’s a respect of each other. And a lot of pieces clearly have to be reached for us to achieve such a high goal. But that’s our goal.”
The Sixers finished with the third-best record in the NBA’s Eastern Conference last season, then made only minor offseason roster changes. Toronto, which had the best record in the conference, added Kawhi Leonard, if at the expense of DeMar DeRozan. Boston had the second-best record in the conference and did play in the NBA Finals, but did so without injured stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Both will be back.
The Sixers (10-1) are slight future-book favorites over 12-1 Toronto among Eastern Conference teams to win the NBA championship, though they are one slot behind the Celtics, who are at 6-1.
Odds aside, the Sixers embraced Brown’s challenge.
“Obviously, he’s got the experience, having been the assistant coach at San Antonio,” Dario Saric said. “What the team needs to do is to come in and be in the final. He put that in front of us. And maybe it is a bigger goal than everyone expects. But because of that, that kind of thing will push us to come on the court hungry every day and try to play fast every moment in the game.
“That’s our goal in our minds. Sometimes you have to put that bigger step in your mind to push you to make that real.”
Health will matter, as will postseason matchups. And those 82 games the Sixers are obligated to tolerate before the playoffs may mean something too.
“The whole point of a goal is that you want to reach it,” Simmons said. “We all have to buy in, do our job, pay attention to what the coaches want and make sure we execute that.”
They did that last season, working to meet Brown’s postseason-or-failure, often mentioning it throughout a satisfying regular season as a source of motivation. But 16 teams reach the NBA playoffs. Two make the NBA Finals.
For that, Brown was just a bit more careful Saturday when pressed to declare that anything less than a championship-round playoff appearance would disappoint.
“I think I’d just like to stand by my comment,” he said. “That is our goal. That is our goal. I’ll leave it at that.”