For Sixers, stopping and starting continues as usual
CAMDEN, N.J. >> From inside the holding room where the 76ers store the press Thursday, the sounds of a good, spirited basketball workout were clear. There were shouts and whistles, basketballs being dribbled and shots hitting the rim, some laughs, some grunts, the usual.
Then, just around 11, it all stopped.
Five minutes later, it started again.
And if there was a moment, a situation, an example of the job Brett Brown has been asked to do under unreasonable circumstances, that was the one. Because that’s when, the Sixers would later acknowledge, the head coach was called to the side, whispered some news, and told to pull Nerlens Noel off the floor.
“Bunker down,” Brown would say later. “It’s going to be a busy day.”
It’s not difficult to make a basketball team worse. Anyone can do it. It does take a certain panache, however, to do it the Sixers’ way. And this is how it happened, and happened quickly, Thursday for the Sixers, who have come to own the idea of eternal regression.
• First, they made it official: Ersan Ilyasova was traded to Atlanta for a second-round pick, the right to swap secondround picks, and the aging, injured Tiago Splitter.
That would be Ilyasova, who was acquired early in the season for Jerami Grant, and who so gave the Sixers professionalism and outside shooting that he commandeered the starting stretch-four position.
• Next, they gave Noel away, to the Dallas Mavericks, and at a discount price. Two years ago an NBA All-Rookie center, once projected as a No. 1 overall draft pick, eventually becoming central to a 76ers rebuilding process that at the time included Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams, Noel was exchanged for blah shooting guard Justin Anderson, end-of-theline overpaid center Andrew Bogut and a protected first-round draft choice more likely to eventually convey as two second-round picks.
• Plowing forward, they allowed Joel Embiid to practice fully, or at least it was suggested, only to declare that they would rest him for another four games to “minimize the possibility” of his bruised knee bone being reinjured.
• Finally, they put Ben Simmons through a CT scan to decide if he was ready to play on the surgically repaired foot that had kept him out all season, and chose to keep the results to themselves, at least for a day.
So within hours, out went a starting forward, a contributing young center and a star-level starting center, and further into a fog went the last No. 1 draft choice.
The Sixers couldn’t have done any more to make Brown’s job tougher had they insisted he coach blindfolded.
“It’s always a difficult day,” Brown said. “And I’ve lived through this now, with all of us, for four years. And you’re always trying to look further out on end-game goals, trying to ultimately be a championship contender. What that all adds up to as things unfold over the four years, only time will judge.”
Brown was speaking specifically about the Ilyasova deal, and generally about the Sixers’ eternal plan to be a better team at some other time. On an expiring contract, Ilyasova may have been costing Dario Saric some minutes. So he wasn’t their long-term power forward anyway. Yet it was just one more part chipped away, the latest in a series that never stops.
The loss of Noel, though, was more significant. Unlike Ilyasova, Noel was not long ago brandished as a symbol of the Sixers’ rebuilding. Though unable to play forward and probably over-sold as a developing superstar, he did have plus-shotblocking skills, a willingness to run the floor and the ability to be the Sixers’ best center should physical strife continue to marginalize Embiid.
The Sixers were never going to make a system with Embiid, Noel and Jahlil Okafor work. That was because Sam Hinkie didn’t realize that none had the ability to swing out to a forward spot. Noel even made a small scene at training camp, announcing that threecenter plan would fail. Clearly, the Sixers’ preference was to move Okafor. It’s why Brown admitted to sitting Okafor for two games as a concession to “trade rumors.” Those rumors were, however, false, with Okafor remaining a 76er through the deadline. So Noel was next. And he went for nothing of immediate help and little in long-term value.
“It was kind of hard for him to start, unless we were starting together,” Embiid said. “But I am happy for him. He is going to get a chance to start in Dallas and play the game that he loves.”
The muffled truth, though, was that Embiid rarely starts, either. He has played 31 games in three years, and just one of the Sixers’ last 14, and will be gone at least until the March 3 game against the visiting Knicks.
So when Brown walked on the court and motioned Noel to the business office Thursday, he was left with a center rotation of Okafor and Richaun Holmes. Problem … solved? “They understand what happened,” Brown said. “It didn’t catch anybody wildly off guard. But when it actually happens, there is a human side that is sad. I have been with these guys and we are all grateful for their effort. Truly.
“Those emotions fly around on days like today.”
Then they are put aside and the basketball resumes, at whatever level of competence.