For starters, Brown keeping options open

CAMDEN » Save for a basketball-practice standard activity Monday, the Sixers’ third training camp workout was just about over. All that was left were the sprints.

So they lined up along the baseline, and more than once the players raced, from one end to the other, and back. And in that, they were competing, some for jobs, others for starting positions.

Or were they?

When the Sixers did not succeed in their offseason hunt for a star, they would enter training camp with a top of the depth chart that was identical to last season. All five starters had returned. And because Brett Brown has had at least one printout proving that no NBA starting five was as analytically effective last season, he was in no particular rush to make a dramatic lineup change.

So are Joel Embiid, Robert Covington, Dario Saric, J.J. Redick and Ben Simmons are under no immediate job threat? Or is it still possible for someone else to win a job in camp, with the way they play, or even by hustling during shooting drills?

“I’m looking at it all,” Brown said. “I really am.”

While it may be argued that the most efficient starting five was the one last seen lugging a trophy around the Bay Area, the Sixers were indeed deemed to have the statistically best No. 1 unit … and some alternative lineups that were even more analytically brilliant.

Somebody has to start, though. And if that isn’t a focus of training camp, what is?

“My starting five isn’t as dramatic as the media’s and, at times, the players’,” Brown said. “I’m always interested in who ends games. I’ve given you my story about how we had an NBA All-Star in San Antonio and brought him off the bench in Manu Ginobili. We effectively played him seven, seven, seven and seven. He played the last seven minutes of every period. And that seemed to prolong his career and work for him and work for us.”

On paper, there is nothing tragically flawed about the Sixers’ projected lineup, which should improve the longer it is together. But there are alternative ideas. For one, Brown has talked often about using Simmons and Markelle Fultz in the backcourt. Fultz could thrive in a two-pointguard set. Wilson Chandler started 71 times for Denver last season. And as long as he is around, T.J. McConnell is going to compete for minutes, either early or late.

“I’m not really worried about who’s starting,” said McConnell, a regular 20162017 starting point guard. “I’m just focusing on getting better every day and leave those decisions up to the coaches. Everyone wants to start. But we know that’s not realistic for everybody. That’s why we know we can’t worry about that. We just have to continue to get better as a team.”

No matter how set the Sixers seem to be at the top, there will be injuries to deal with and matchups to exploit. But unless something dramatic breaks in camp, chances are that familiar and analytically successful No. 1 unit is not going to change.

“I’ve said this and I mean this: The gym will speak to me,” Brown said. “And then I’m going to have to make a decision as a head coach. But then, I’m open. I’m really coming in here and just trying to be thoughtful in how we make all the decisions that I have to make.”