Brown and Colangelo won’t count out minutes restrictions
CAMDEN, N.J. » Some year, some day, some era or century, the 76ers will commit to a game of professional basketball without one of their players on a sports-scienceordered minutes restriction.
It’s only June, but it’s already not looking good for 2017-2018.
“I think it’s ambitious,” Brett Brown said Friday, after a formal press conference to introduce the Sixers’ latest draft picks. “We have all been around NBA basketball for a while now. And if that could happen, that’s amazing. I think to set our sights on that being a reality is very ambitious. It’s very ambitious. But so be it. It doesn’t alter at all the plan, the path, the purpose of what we’re still trying to grow the program around. But I think on first gut-feel, glance, experience, it’s ambitious.”
In each of the last five seasons, the Sixers have had a prominent player miss all 82 games, rarely with injuries that previously may have been considered season-ending. Andrew Bynum missed all of DRAFT
• 1 (1) Markelle Fultz, g, Washington
• 1 (25) Anzejs Pasecniks, c, Herbalife Gran Canaria (Spain) (from Orlando)
• 2 (36) Jonah Bolden, f, FMP Beograd (Serbia)
• 2 (39) Jawun Evans, g, Oklahoma St.
• 2 (46) Sterling Brown, g, SMU
• 2 (50) Mathias Lessort, f, Nanterre 92 (France)
TRADE
• Orlando traded the rights to Anzejs Pasecniks, c, Herbalife Gran Canaria (Spain) (No. 25) to the Sixers for 2020 first- and second-round draft picks.
the 2013 season, Nerlens Noel took 2014 off, Joel Embiid sat through 2015 and 2016, and Ben Simmons missed all of last season.
But the Sixers have sold more than 14,000 season tickets and well could sell out their entire season. One reason is that fans are anticipating seeing Embiid, Simmons, new first-round draft pick Markelle Fultz and others on a regular basis. Technically, though, Embiid has not been fully cleared to return from a season-ending knee injury, and the Sixers have not formally declared Simmons fully healthy after foot surgery. Also, possible pillars Jahlil Okafor and Robert Covington had their 2016-2017 seasons ended early with knee troubles.
So if the Sixers are set to allow Embiid and Okafor to play on backto-back nights, or to trust Simmons’ recovering foot to entire NBA games, it will be a departure from recent policy.
“If that’s what the training, medical and performance staff tells us, then that’s going to be the case,” Bryan Colangelo said. “I think both Ben and Joel are on course for recovery. I’d throw Robert Covington, who is overcoming a surgery, into that mix, too. The bottom line is that we anticipate a full and healthy roster at the opening of training camp.
“But once again, if the health, medical and performance staff tells us that we are ready to go, we’ll go.”
Aware that too many star-level players had been resisting playing on consecutive days, the NBA will do what it can to adjust the schedule to provide more recovery time between games. Colangelo, though, all but warned of Embiid missing games in the interest of load management.
“He’s a unique individual in a lot of ways,” the general manager said. “Size, strength, power. He plays with reckless abandon, and some of that has to be controlled. And at some stage, guys fatigue and they have to come out, and there will be times when the players need rest. But we will let the medical staff and the performance staff try to guide us in those decisions.”
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NOTES » The Sixers’ plan is for Fultz to participate in the NBA summer leagues … Center Anzejs Pasecniks, the No. 25 overall draft choice out of Latvia, was introduced Friday, but is still committed to play professionally in Spain for two more years. “Philly is great,” he said. “The moment the draft came out it was an amazing feeling. I still have a smile on my face.” … Also introduced were second-round picks Jonah Bolden, an Australian forward with experience at UCLA, and forward Mathias Lessort, a forward from France … The Sixers made SMU guard Sterling Brown the No. 46 pick, but reports are he was being traded to Milwaukee and he was not at the practice site Friday ... Bovada, a sports-gaming site, lists Simmons at 3-1 to be the 2018 Rookie of the Year, with Fultz checking in at 5-1. Lonzo Ball, at 5-2, is the morning-line favorite.