Counting benefits of an unexpected hiatus
They have been spectacular at home, unacceptable on the road, forever in roster flux and never quite healthy.
They have been good more than bad, constructed for postseason success, well coached, fairly disciplined and deep in skill.
The 76ers are 39-26, have eight regular-season games remaining, and would have been good in the postseason no matter what oddity might have disrupted their season. But if something were to have happened to allow Joel Embiid close to four months of dedicated training and body-building, for Ben Simmons to fully recover from what had been a season-threatening back injury, for virtual iron-man Tobias Harris to have some bonus load-management time, for Al Horford to rest his 34-year-old body and for Brett Brown to have time to deep-think his playoff rotation, well, the Sixers would be even more dangerous.
Something did happen.
There was time to heal. Simmons recovered and, says his coach, is at 100 percent NBA readiness. Horford is rested.
And Embiid, Brown insisted Wednesday on an hourlong Zoom call with basketball writers, is gaining fitness, not weight.
“I mean, let’s just start with
the respect and applause I give him for putting in time,” Brown said. “There is nobody on our team that has put in more time than Joel Embiid. And forget what he has actually done in the gym and just go to man-hours and consecutive days and the amount of days that he has put in over the last few months. I am proud of him, I respect him, and he needed to do it.”
In theory, the coronavirus shutdown should have had the same impact on every NBA team. Not every team, however, has had the same take on sports science as the Sixers, who have been dedicated for years to compromising regular-season opportunities in exchange for premium postseason readiness.
Literally from Day 1 of the first training camp, Brown has been talking about “landing the plane in April and May.” And even if that flight has been delayed until September and October, that bonus fourmonth load-management opportunity should provide his team with enormous benefits.
Not that the Sixers hadn’t hinted at it throughout the hiatus, but Brown sounded more certain than ever Wednesday that Simmons was able to use the time to regain health and add strength. No, he didn’t say anything about his point guard adding a 3-point shot. But that has been asked and answered.
As for what Brown has in mind for Simmons, and what Simmons has become more agreeable to in recent months, the layoff has been a virtual
basketball gift. With the development of Shake Milton as a multi-skilled ball-carrier, shooter and defender, Simmons often will be used in a frontcourt role when the NBA resumes. His pick-androll capabilities with Embiid could be legendary. Wednesday, Brown invoked the image of Karl Malone and John Stockton. None of that would have been possible had the playoffs unfolded on time with Simmons still undergoing treatment on his back.
“You are always trying to be responsible of not being a cheerleader or delivering stuff that maybe you’re going to regret,” Brown said. “You are trying to walk that line of protecting Ben and not jumping out of your lane where people’s hopes get too high. But he’s good to go. He’s put in a tremendous amount of work for
me to confidently say that. I think when you look for silver linings in this pandemic and how things shaped up, I would be hard-pressed to find something more obvious than this. It has enabled Ben to reclaim his health.”
With the exception of Zhaire Smith, who has a bruised knee, the Sixers are healthy. According to Brown, all of his players have been cleared to play under the NBA’s virus guidelines and none have opted out of three months of isolation in the Orlando bubble for health or other concerns.
If the perforated season is to provide a challenge, it will be to Brown, who has had his preferred starting lineup available for only 19 out of 65 games, and who had just a dozen games to work tradedeadline acquisitions
Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks into the rotation. Yet as if on special order, the NBA has delivered Brown a 20-day training period, opportunities for scrimmages, then eight regular-season games of minimal value before Round 1 of the playoffs.
Brown is vowing to focus on training camp, not what will happen a month after it starts. By the time the playoffs begin, the Sixers will be at peak health, will have had plenty of opportunities for Brown to shave his rotation to nine players, and will be in a position where they don’t have to perform the one trick they have not been able to master: Winning a road game.
“In a perfect world, you’d like to go into those eight games and have some minor tweaks,” Brown said, “as opposed to being in a
Game 5 and saying, ‘Oh, no, we have something that is a little funky here.’”
When the NBA resumes, shooting is expected to be off, but the Sixers were not designed as a 3-point-shooting team anyway. Stamina will be valued, and Embiid will never have had more load-management time. Experience will be key, and the Sixers have enough.
“I believe that we are going to respond,” Brown said. “I think we have the opportunity and the ability to fix what we need to in a playoff environment.”
For the right team, a four-month reset and a bonus training camp will do that.
The 76ers are that right team.