The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Talent, experience yield a season of promise
CAMDEN, N.J. >> The 76ers’ last season had just ended with a playoff loss in Boston, but Ben Simmons still had time to make one final play-call.
“He showed me his hand,” Joel Embiid said that night, before leaving the Garden. “And he said, ‘There’s going to be a lot of rings on these fingers.’”
With that, the Offseason of Promises was on.
Within days, Brett Brown would announce that Simmons would “knock it out of the park” in an attempt to become a better outside shooter. From that, there would be promises of “starhunting,” and of a revival of Markelle Fultz. As training camp opened, there would be murmurs of Embiid about to play “bully ball.” Finally, Brown would announce a goal: NBA Finals.
Rings. Home runs. Stars. Bullies. Shooters. And multiple successful playoff rounds. That’s all. So … show it. And begin to show it in that same Boston building where the last season ended and the promises began. Begin to show it at 8 Tuesday night, against the Celtics, in the season opener. Ready? “I think,” Brown said, “we’re as close as we should be.”
The question: Will it be close enough? Will it yield that spot in the NBA Finals? Is it the Sixers’ time? Are they much better than the team won their last 16 regular-season games last season, 52 overall and a playoff round?
“I see it,” Brown said. “But I see it maybe not in the immediate way that people would want to hear. I think our future is amazing. And I see a progressive growth. I think we have a chance to be good for a decade. I think we have a chance to be good for a long time. And that’s what excites me the most.”
If that was an enthusiasm-downgrade from that offseason cascade of promises, there were reasons. For one, Simmons resurfaced in training camp and immediately announced that he would not be taking threepointers. For another, the Sixers’ three major offseason additions, veterans Wilson Chandler (hamstring) and Mike Muscala (ankle) and top draft-night acquisition Zhaire Smith (broken foot), are injured. And since veteran contributors Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova effectively were bumped to create the room for that roster turnover, the Sixers will not walk into the Garden Tuesday as deep as they were when they stumbled out of it in May.
Just the same, Vegas has held firm with an over-under win projection of 54, an indicator that there could be improvement, if only from the growth of what had been a young nucleus. And didn’t somebody once suggest that the whole thing was a process?
“Last year, we expected to make the playoffs, and we did,” Dario Saric said. “Then we made the next round and played a good team like Boston. This year, everyone is one year older, and we all have had one more year of playing together. And obviously, that will help us out a lot.”
With the growth, Brown will implement on-court changes. He will move Fultz into the starting lineup and use J.J. Redick as a changeof-pace, first-half shooter. Then he’ll flip it in the second half. It’s his team, he’ll coach it his way. But with that rotation-juggle will also be a juggle of the defensive rotations. And that, if successful, will fuel improvement.
“Last year, I felt we kind of made mistakes as far as communicating against Boston,” Embiid said. “I was stuck in a corner because I wasn’t allowed to help in the post by switching and going to double-team. This new scheme will allow me to help if I want to go help and cut off people. It gives me that ability.”
Embiid was an All-Star and a firm MVP candidate last season, until a late orbital bone fracture. Simmons had enough good nights at the point to win Rookie of the Year, though it helped that the ballot box closed before he could be walled-off by the Celtics, exposing his shooting deficiencies. Saric, Fultz and, don’t you know, Robert Covington will complete the starting lineup. When healthy, the floorstretching, 6-11 Muscala will cover for the loss of Ilyasova, while providing better mobility at the defensive end. Chandler, who started 71 games for Denver last season, is a 6-8 two-way forward also able to play multiple defensive roles.
Redick, the best outside shooter the franchise has ever employed, remains a value, as does T.J. McConnell, who will play both backcourt spots, at least early in the season. Veteran big man Amir Johnson had some moments last season and was considered a valuable enough clubhouse presence to rehire. Furkan Korkmaz, who has shown he can score, will benefit from some deep-roster cleansing and likely stay off of the Delaware-to-Philly shuttle. Landry Shamet, the 26th player taken in the first round, can shoot and defend and could surprise. Young forward Jonah Bolden will add bulk.
It seems Brown has had worse teams.
“We have lived an interesting life, haven’t we?” he said. “Yes, we have. And so, here we are. We’re still on the path that we talked about when they hired me. And to everybody’s credit, nobody’s ever blinked. And the future is what I get the most excited about. And here we go, we’re going into my sixth season. And to open in Boston Garden sure makes it even that much more exciting.”
The question: Where does it close?
“Ultimate success would be an NBA championship,” Redick said. “I think our timeline sped up a little bit, given the success we had from Christmas on last year. We realize we have more to do.”
They’re in the position to give it a run. Make it 55 wins, two successful playoff series, and at least some of those promises filled.