Cooney: Time for Sixers' Brown to see net results

THE NORMAL timeline for a college basketball coach to turn fortunes when taking over a program is three years. That allows for weeding out some of the factors that precipitated a coaching change, growing what is good in the program and stockpiling talent to move forward.

Brett Brown has now had three years at the helm of the 76ers and not unlike a college coach, he has pieces in place with which to build. Now is the time when fans can legitimately start to assess where the organization is heading and the brunt of those opinions will be directly tied to the job Brown does.

The excitement in the city and within the organization has reached levels not experienced by this team in a long, long time. This year's roster includes Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Dario Saric, along with second-year big man Jahlil Okafor and defensive ace Nerlens Noel.

While talk of playoffs and a .500 season are most likely premature, improvement and growth are most surely attainable. This season, however, will be more about meshing the talent accumulated with the third, third and first pick over the past three drafts, respectively, along with a plethora of players who are positionally similar.

The attention of this year's team immediately goes to Embiid, sidelined the past two seasons due to a right foot injury. During that time, he has grown another three inches, packed on about 30 pounds of muscle and enticed fans and coaches with an athletic ability seemingly unmatched for someone his size, albeit against limited competition.

But how Brown will mesh this club is still unknown, and the coach said as much during a meeting with the media on Thursday. He sees Embiid as the defensive cog in the middle, the rim protector who will allow perimeter defenders to guard aggressively, knowing he is behind them. Brown said Embiid will only play center, then pretty much stated the same things about Okafor and Noel. The coach unequivocally said that his team will run as much as possible and that a halfcourt offense of pounding the ball inside is not how he envisions things. Yet, that plays to the strength of Okafor and perhaps Embiid.

When talking about Noel, the coach mentioned a desire to never see him shooting jumpers again, though the team has worked on his shooting form and had him practicing 15- to 18-footers practically daily over the past couple of years.

Right now, it's all a big piece of unformed clay, which Brown will be in charge of forming into a formidable work of art.

"You blink and three years have gone by," Brown said. "We have all stepped back and watched with obvious and aggressive interest in Joel Embiid and his health. We've waited patiently for the arrival of Dario Saric. There has been a lot that has gone on this summer.

"To come in here and say we know exactly how this is going to work, that's not true. We've got Dario and Ben Simmons playing with each other and we learn something. This world that we're living in now, which I like, is one where you just step back and you see something new every single day. They've never played a second with each other. I have spent so much time over the summer thinking through how I'm going to play this, how you going to sub this? It's 92-92 with three minutes left and what are you going to draw, who are you going to go to? What's your go-to play? You think and you guess and you play with it, but the reality of it is I'm seeing it unfold slowly before my eyes now, of what these guys can do."

But his attention seems to mainly go to, and through, Embiid.

"I wouldn't say at this stage it's mysterious or unknown in the environment that we're seeing him," Brown said. "The speed of an NBA game, going against NBA players, will reveal more. In the world that I have seen him, I feel like that I get it; I feel like I know what he can do. I think I can see his greatest strengths and areas that he needs improvement. (In finding someone comparable to Embiid) you pick pieces of different people because you don't see many times where you're looking at a player at 276, 280 pounds at 7-2, (and you automatically think) back down, back down and dunk. Back down, back down, jump hook. A post player. Catch, turn and face. Back somebody off, rocket step jump shot. Bank shot (like Tim) Duncan. Come up the floor trailing where he can catch and easily, to date, rise up and hit a three or catch it and actually dribble the ball and do something with it. When you say, 'Who does that at 7-2 and 276,' the world shrinks. You go to pieces of different people. We'll learn a lot more when the lights go on."

Those lights started to twinkle back on Sept. 6 when many players made their way to the Sixers' practice facility for workouts. They will shine full blast when training camp starts a week from Tuesday at Stockton University in Galloway, N.J.

That's when the questions that have surrounded this team will start to be answered for Brown. How do the three big men fit together, or can they? How much will Simmons play the point guard spot? Can Simmons and Saric, whose games seem to parallel each other, play together? Will the outside shooting provide enough of a threat to open up the inside for the bigs and for Simmons and Saric to dribble penetrate?

"You get so excited to wake up. I truly mean that," Brown said. "Because imagine when we win. Can you believe there's an excitement after 10 wins? You want to hold tight, you want to buy some time and get through this and seeing daylight with new practice facilities, with new talent, the growth of the 20-year olds, playing defense, sharing the ball, playing with pace. I see the blueprint clearly. There's no mystery in my eyes of how I need to do my job. None. And so, I get excited when you project out and you see these unbelievably incredibly passionate fans rewarded with a win.

"There's going to be some moving parts that we're going to have to figure out. Some of it is going to play out organically. Some of it is going to rear its head on game night. Right now you can't appoint anybody. There is no traditional lineup. You're not going to hand things to people and it's going to be a fight and people are going to earn their stripes and it's the way that it should be at this stage for us. We're still very much in the stage of growing and learning about the resources, the players, the talent that we have."

That's where three years of unimaginable losing has brought the organization. Blending the talent may be as challenging for Brown as enduring the 246 career games to get here. It should certainly be a hell of a lot more enjoyable, though.

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog