At center of storm, Brown typically spreading calm
The 76ers have too many centers, not enough high-level guards, a growling former franchise showpiece and, as always, a pre-packaged wail for patience.
Welcome to training camp?
“We’re looking forward, not back,” general manager Bryan Colangelo was saying the other day. “This is not dissimilar to a construction site for a skyscraper, or a real estate project.”
He’s not Sam Hinkie, not close, not a basketballoperations director ever delaying success. But because that skyscraper project is just past the mezzanine level so many years later, what should have been a refreshing start to a successful era this week has spun into a reminder of how sloppy the process was all along.
The Sixers’ plan was to collect valuable pieces and worry later if they would fit. They emerged from one draft with a center, then the next draft too, then the one after that. Then they trusted Brett Brown to navigate them out of the traffic jam. So there was the head coach Tuesday, after the Sixers’ first camp practice at Stockton University, X-ing, Oing and hitting every key on the board to make it all sound reasonable.
And just how is he planning to steady the structure, the one that Nerlens Noel has alleged is too off balance not to topple?
“To be that definitive is not where I want to go,” Brown said. “We all look at the restrictions that we know Joel (Embiid) is going to have and has, the fact that Jahlil (Okafor) is still coming back into this and is not 100 percent. In the early days, I see daylight. I see a bright, white light for Nerlens Noel. He’s the only one that has no restrictions. And so, opportunity creates different things.
“The two other five-men have restrictions. So he’s going to play. He’ll play a lot against Boston (in the preseason opener.) He’ll play a lot in practice. And I think, over time, we’ll all step back and figure out where it goes.”
That’s what the Sixers do. They wait. That’s why they’re fortunate Brown has the coaching skill to have his players keep resetting their own professional clocks. And with Embiid limited to 25 minutes in the morning practice Tuesday and 20 minutes at night, due to what he believed was a flu, Noel played, played hard and suspended his protesting.
“When I get on the court, it’s all business,” Noel said. “I’m with my teammates playing basketball. So I will leave all that. It will figure itself out at this point.”
Caught in a situation created by a process that never had an established finish line, that was about the most that the players and coaches could do. Brown did start to sprinkle hints about playing Okafor away from the basket on offense. That could release some five-spot pressure. And training camp practices often end in controlled scrimmages, providing plenty of time for everyone to play.
But what about when the money games begin? What happens when one of those centers is shoved off the last musical chair? What about the thud? What about the reverberations?
The Sixers tried to drag a new enthusiasm into camp. Colangelo had hired three experienced guards in Jerryd Bayless, Gerald Henderson and Sergio Rodriguez, and he did finally drag Dario Saric out of Turkey. He even mixed Elton Brand back in, if only to provide the value of experience. That should have been enough adhesive to keep a youthful core together, including the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Ben Simmons.
“There is a lot of newness to this,” Colangelo said. “We are getting a lot of people acclimated to a new situation. Players in the locker room were subjected to one mentality and are changing the mindset. That was one where there was almost an acceptance of losing. Even though they were playing hard, they were not winning. There was a losing culture. This is a step toward winning.”
That was the blueprint, anyway, before Noel lit a book of matches on media day, saying, “I don’t see a way of it working.” So … is he right? “We’re going to let some of this play out,” Colangelo said. “Our young players not in a position necessarily to dictate circumstances other than by playing hard.”
Until then, there will be Brett Brown dealing with a bulky, out-of-whack roster, vowing to make it all work. He’s used to that. He’s very used to that. He’s too used to that.