PHILADELPHIA \u2014 For the first time in stretches longer than a social media clip, Sixers fans got a glimpse Saturday at what the new era of the team looks like.<\/p>\n
For three 10-minute quarters, the 76ers scrimmaged each other before a few thousand fans at the Xfinity Mobile Arena. The squads featured just about a full complement of the roster, save for a couple of expected injuries. It was the first time to see what LeBron James and Jaylen Brown look like in Sixers Blue (or Sixers White) and offered glimpses of how all the Hall of Fame pieces might fit together.<\/p>\n
The teams mixed and matched, giving the 20-man camp roster plenty of run. The first 10-minute game pitted a first-team unit in Blue \u2013 James, Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Dean Wade, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope \u2013 against the White reserves. The Blue team won that handily.<\/p>\n
The second session featured more mixed squads, with Edgecombe and Brown on one team with Wade and Embiid, James and Maxey on the other.<\/p>\n
Some observations from the scrimmage:<\/p>\n
The difference in Embiid<\/p>\n
Praise from the 76ers has been effusive this year as to the shape that Embiid entered preseason in. He looked visibly lighter on the court, moving better with his slimmed down frame.<\/p>\n
Embiid was active in ways that he wasn\u2019t always last year. He contested shots at the rim. He rolled harder to the basket with the ball. He had one left-handed dunk and one attempted block of Edgecombe in the second segment that was called a foul but that a puckish Embiid insisted was all ball. He hedged hard on screens.<\/p>\n
The rest of it was typical Embiid: Great in the two-man game, with Maxey in particular; a vigilant catch-and-shoot option with a quick trigger; an ability to slow the game to his pace.<\/p>\n
President of Basketball Operations Mike Gansey sung Embiid\u2019s praises pregame.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a plan together, and he\u2019s been in every single drill, every single practice. So there\u2019s been no restrictions,\u201d he said. \u201cHe obviously worked super hard this summer. He told me he was motivated. He wanted to have a great year, and he\u2019s showing it out there. He looks a little bit lighter, obviously, but the skill level is still there. Some of the stuff he does now, seeing it in person, it\u2019s incredible to watch some of the stuff he does on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
VJ Stars<\/p>\n
The best player on the court for the first two of three segments was Edgecombe. Any worry about how he would fit as the off-ball option around the other four, high-usage starters should be dispelled.<\/p>\n
He was confident as a spot-up shooter. He hit a couple of the pull-up jumpers in transition that he incorporated to his game last year. He has the potential to be a lethal off-ball cutter and slasher.<\/p>\n
\u201cA very cerebral player,\u201d James said. \u201cHe\u2019s always looking for ways to get better on the floor. Even at his young age, it definitely feels like he\u2019s much older. Feels like he\u2019s definitely not in Year 2. And that\u2019s great to have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philon\u2019s Defense<\/p>\n
When he was drafted with the 22nd overall pick, LaBaron Philon\u2019s offensive bona fides at Alabama were well-established, having averaged 22 points per game. But the requirements for his role shifted some when Brown and James were acquired.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll still be a second unit scorer. But he impressed defensively on Saturday with a couple of great actions, poking the ball away from James on the perimeter and Brown on a drive to the hoop.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been great,\u201d Gansey said. \u201cI think the first day of camp was fast for him. You know, obviously coming from college, summer league, but he\u2019s really settled in the last couple days. He\u2019s so talented. But the thing I love about him, with all these guys too, it doesn\u2019t really faze him. He\u2019s just coming in there competing and trying to earn some minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spaced Out<\/p>\n
The 76ers tried a few different combinations with Wade and Caldwell-Pope as spacers. On paper, it seems easy to see how that will work, with on-ball action or two-man game leaving them open on the wing to shoot.<\/p>\n
In practice, it worked just about the same way, both hitting early shots in the first segment. KCP also looked comfortable in a short corner situation and operating in space around the baseline.<\/p>\n
Hukporti\u2019s audition<\/p>\n
The backup center job is going to be important for the 76ers. And at the moment, Ariel Hukporti will get just about unlimited reps to audition, given where the Sixers\u2019 limited number of injuries lie. Saturday, he was excellent.<\/p>\n
He was authoritative as a rim protector, which is his main duty. He looked good rebounding, though the scrimmage setting didn\u2019t include the usual intensity of crashing the boards of a game. He was competent in two-man defense, and while he got shot over in switches a few times, he was quick to recover on drives even when they got a step on him.<\/p>\n
But what looked really impressive was a 3-for-3 shooting performance on shots in the five- to 10-foot range. He\u2019s got the same, one-handed push shot as Isaiah Hartenstein, his fellow German international and one-time New York Knick. It\u2019s a differentiator between him and Adem Bona, whose only offense is in the immediate vicinity of the rim.<\/p>\n
(Mostly) Healthy<\/p>\n
The Sixers remain without Bona, who is nursing a foot sprain. Two-way candidate Tacko Fall is out with a hip strain picked up in practice this week.<\/p>\n
The only unexpected absences were Dominick Barlow, who was on the bench with the Blue squad but had a wrap on his back, and Anfernee Simons, who warmed up but did not participate.<\/p>\n
Simons\u2019 absence ensured meant more reps for Philon as a primary ball-handler and some looks for Caleb Love, who showed some nice explosiveness off the bounce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 For the first time in stretches longer than a social media clip, Sixers fans got a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,7,6,678,207,3817,66,7464],"class_list":["post-850487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117380894180975585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}