High atop a fancy downtown Philadelphia restaurant, 76ers head coach Brett Brown hosted his annual pre-training camp luncheon for roughly 30 or so media members, and didn’t beat around the bush when asked about the balancing act between making sure the playoffs run through Wells Fargo Center, or delivering a healthy Joel Embiid to said postseason.
“I want the number one seed,” Brown said, briefly pausing, giving what he said a dramatic element that he probably didn’t intend for. “So, what does that mean? To me it just means what it means. I want to go for the number one seed. Of course, we’re all gonna say the same thing, ‘Not to the detriment of Joel’s health, and maybe not to the detriment, at times, of developing players and all the other things that I’m not thinking through right now.’ We’ll say that, and this is true. But, I will put out there now—I want to get the number one seed.”
Last season, the Sixers finished with the third seed, going 14-10 over their final 24 regular season games, most of the time without their “crown jewel,” Mr. Embiid. You saw more Hulu Has Live Sports commercials than No. 21 taking inferior big men to school. Missing Embiid wasn’t why the 76ers finished behind the Bucks and Raptors. They would’ve had to have gone 22-2 to surpass the Toronto for the second seed and 24-0 for a better record than Milwaukee. It wasn’t going to happen whether or not Embiid was on the floor.
But, back then, Brown didn’t even put any emphasis on catching the teams in front of them. It was all about getting a sore Embiid healthy enough for April, May and hopefully June. The latter never happened, but it certainly would’ve helped if Game 7 against the Raptors was in South Philadelphia rather than Scotiabank Arena. Having four games instead of three on South Broad Street might’ve swung the series. And it was obvious Toronto was better than Milwaukee, so maybe the Sixers would’ve played in the NBA Finals and stole one from the battered Warriors.
Home court matters, especially for this “championship caliber team” Brown thinks he has. An unbelievable second half last season wouldn’t have gotten the Sixers the one-seed, but maybe playing better before the All-Star Break could’ve made that happen. It’s important. Every game counts towards that final record and Brown recognizes that by establishing the goal of making sure the elite in the East have to go to the Sixers house first before theirs.
Here’s what also stood out from Brown’s hour long-plus conversation with the assembled media.
Since I was just focused on Embiid, let’s transition to his status going into camp.
“He’s fired up,” Brown said. “He understands the responsibility. This is a partnership. We’ve done this forever it seems. And if none of us sort of understand that or believe that, go look at his face after the (Kawhi Leonard) ball goes in.”
What you haven’t seen is him risking injury playing pick-up basketball with “regular Joe’s” like you and I. It sounds like Embiid may be using the shocking end to last season as motivation to make sure that never happens again.
Good for him.
Also, good for the Sixers to make changes to their medical staff, which received endless amounts of negative attention over the past five, six seasons. Brown admits poor health is one thing that could dash the 76ers championship aspirations.
“We’ve gone beyond the call of duty with researching like how do we fix things, grow things, repeat things as it relates to our medical staff,” Brown said. “That’s the starting point for Joel.”
And that means, whether you like this or not, no more medical updates or explanations from Brown. He’s a basketball coach, not Dr. Brown.
“I’m not doing it,” Brown said with purpose. “I’m not the person that should do it. It’s not my place anymore.”
He’s right. It was ridiculous when Brown was forced to answer questions that were above his head and expertise. No head coach in any sport should be summoned to discuss medical timelines and details regarding an injured player. Every franchise should use the Andy Reid-Rick Burkholder book of how to handle things like the Eagles did for many years when Reid was in charge.
However, while Brown has attempted to establish that he won’t be answering medical questions anymore, what’s not clear is who will answer questions about the health status of injured players. Will it be new Performance Direction Lorena Torres, who comes from the Spurs? Will it be new Medical Director Scott Epsley, who was the team’s Director of Physiotherapy and Clinical Diagnostics before his promotion? Will it be General Manager Elton Brand, who Brown couldn’t have spoken more glowingly about Wednesday afternoon?
I honestly don’t know.
Regardless, I do know Embiid is supposedly in shape, and will “buy in” to the load management plan the 76ers come up for him, which wasn’t necessarily the case last season.
“I think that comes with age and maturity,” Browns said.
Things are sounding really positive regarding Embiid. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say on Media Day Monday.
“The time that he has invested over the course of this summer is the best, by a long shot, that he ever has,” Brown said. “…He’s prideful. He gets it. His confidence that I saw when he came back to Philadelphia and played in our gym over the past few weeks just stood out. It shown as if he had invested time and he was looking forward to showing us, showing his teammates, me, proving it to himself.
“This stuff where you have an opportunity to shoot will certainly be cheerleaded by me, but most importantly, he’s invested the time to shoot the shot better than he has, and now it gets back to that confidence, that willingness to shoot it when the opportunity present.”
As long as Simmons takes shots, even if they’re 15-footers to keep the defense honest, will go a long way for this Sixers team that currently has spacing as a question mark by outsiders going into the season.
This will be Brown’s seventh season as coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Raise your hand if you thought the likable first time NBA head coach would’ve lasted this long when he took over in 2013.
Brown might chuckle your way if you keep your hand down.
He was asked if he feels any pressure after how uncertain his job security seemed publicly at the end of last season.
“It goes for me like this—it happens every year,” Brown said. “Is that not true? And so, I’ve grown up in this environment and I understand. And the same stuff I tell you guys every year—it’s gonna be a low media content day when we got to write, ‘Brett Brown’s on the hot seat.’”
If the Sixers go through a lengthy struggle, or two, or three, or get off to a slow start with nine of their first 13 games being on the road, it wouldn’t shock me if we have a lot of those “low media content days,” no matter how unjustified they might be.
“I feel at peace with a purpose,” Brown said. “I feel at peace with what I need to focus most on. Does it drip feed at times into the pride of being a good coach and winning games and trying to deliver a championship to this city? Of course. Does it dilute or cripple my thinking? Hell no.”
Brown doesn’t hide the fact that the Sixers are a large team.
“We are huge,” he said very early on Wednesday afternoon.
He also thinks they’ll be outstanding on the boards, capable of posting up anyone and won’t be exposed to poor matchups on defense because, quite frankly, they’re “huge,” as he described.
That, again, leaves the question, how will the Sixers spread the ball and shoot in this day and age of NBA basketball where the three-point line is so prominent? How will they be able to space the floor when the smallest guy on the court is 6-foot-6 Josh Richardson?
Brown is confident his guys, including Simmons, can shoot. But, he knows what their “bread and butter” will be.
“When we all leave the room, you should write this with a really thick crayon and hear me loudly—we will end up playing smash mouth offense and bully ball defense,” he said. “We have a team that can do that. And so, are we going to be casting a bunch of 3’s? That’s not our identity.”
Unfortunately, I haven’t used crayons since I was like eight-years-old. But, I did take my pen and wrote clearly in my notebook Wednesday—“smash mouth offense and bully ball defense.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2019-20 Philadelphia 76ers.
Enjoy.