Inside Sixers: Buddy Hield and Cameron Payne’s swift acclimation, celebratory Cleveland, and more

Buddy Hield will recuperate from his whirlwind week with a trip to his native Bahamas, where the priorities are simple for the newly acquired 76ers guard.

1. Spend time with family and friends.

2. Utilize daily sessions with his personal trainer to improve on the skills required in his now-expanded role, which includes making plays with the ball in his hands in addition to burying shots from beyond the arc.

“I’m going to enjoy it,” Hield said after totaling 22 points and a career-high 10 assists in Wednesday’s loss to the Miami Heat. “But we love working. … I’m just ready for a new challenge. Thank God for this league.”

» READ MORE: Why is Nick Nurse excited for Kyle Lowry to join the Sixers? ‘Nobody competes like that guy’

The All-Star break has arrived for the 32-22 Sixers at what coach Nick Nurse acknowledged as “a really good” time, purely for health reasons.

Though reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid is still recovering from last week’s knee surgery, starters Tobias Harris (hip), Nico Batum (hamstring) and De’Anthony Melton (spine) could all be back when the Sixers reassemble next week. And after a rough recent stretch, when the Sixers lost eight out of nine games, Nurse has been encouraged by how his shorthanded team has competed since the trade deadline that brought them Hield and reserve guard Cameron Payne.

“These guys have played awesome, certainly the last 3 1/2 games,” Nurse said Wednesday. “Once we kind of got to where we got to, and this group has kind of been together, they’ve played really well.”

But first, a breather. Rookie guard Terquavion Smith planned to drive through the night to his hometown of Greenville, N.C. Starting wing KJ Martin had an early-morning flight booked to Los Angeles. Nurse will head to Indianapolis to support first-time All-Star Tyrese Maxey.

Before reaching that time off, here are some behind-the-scenes moments that peppered this busy stretch entering the break:

Need evidence of how chaotic a player’s life can be after being traded at the deadline? Payne had played in three games with the Sixers before stepping foot in the practice facility, which finally happened Tuesday.

“It’s super nice,” Payne said following the Sixers’ team session.

Hield, meanwhile, said the start to his Sixers tenure “felt like three-a-days,” with the life logistics of packing, travel, and physicals combined with learning new systems, coaches, and teammates. When the Sixers got an off day in Cleveland following a back-to-back against the Atlanta Hawks and Washington Wizards, Hield said it would be the “first time I’m not going to touch a basketball in a while, I promise you.”

“I’m just going to rest and soak it all in,” Hield said from the postgame locker room in Washington.

» READ MORE: Sixers grades: Kelly Oubre Jr. has rough night, Ricky Council IV keeps outplaying his contract

The All-Star break will provide a longer stretch to catch up in a less-hectic environment. Payne will first return to Milwaukee for more packing but expects to be back in Philly by Monday, where he will get in some on-court work. That will supplement the film already sent to Payne by assistant coach Bryan Gates, with whom he worked when they were both with the Phoenix Suns.

Some of those clips, Payne said, have included Embiid — another sign that the Sixers are hopeful the big man will return in time for the regular season’s stretch run or playoffs.

“He’s not even here yet,” Payne said of Embiid, “and I’ve been learning those things already.”

Following the break, the Sixers will implement at least one more player. Though veteran guard and Philly native Kyle Lowry officially signed Tuesday evening, he did not play Wednesday against the Heat, his former team.

Monday’s postgame locker room scene in Cleveland was predictably celebratory, after the hodgepodge Sixers topped a Cavaliers team that had won 18 of its past 19 games.

A quiet confidence exuded from Ricky Council IV, the undrafted rookie who has taken advantage of rotation minutes the past three games. After totaling 19 points — including seven in the final five minutes — and 10 rebounds in Saturday’s victory at Washington, Council sank two clutch free throws in the waning seconds of the victory in Cleveland.

“I was good,” Council said when asked about his emotions stepping to the line. “The older guys [on the Cavaliers] were trying to mess with me, Donovan [Mitchell] and Darius [Garland]. But, man, if you go back and watch the NCAA Tournament last year, I did the same thing against Kansas. So you’ve just got to stay calm and treat it like a normal free throw.”

Council was referencing when he went 5-of-6 from the stripe in the final 24 seconds to push his Arkansas team to a 72-71 March Madness second-round upset of Kansas, the defending national champion and a No. 1 seed.

In another corner of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, meanwhile, Maxey joked with big man Paul Reed from across the room about finally getting vertical to block Mitchell on the Cavaliers’ final possession.

“Did it tonight, for sure,” Reed said when asked about the exchange. “It wasn’t the first time I did it, and it ain’t going to be the last.”

Whenever Smith steps onto a basketball floor, he brings along the most important parts of himself.

That is thanks to his custom Adidas shoes — which are white and splashed with color and graffiti-style art — designed by friend Will Whitley, who was a college classmate at NC State.

Smith’s kicks feature Greenville’s 252 area code, along with the initials of a close friend who died last year. On the top of the left shoe is the word “us,” which he frequently uses with friends and family as a reminder that, “We’ve just got to stay together, and it’ll all work out.” And on the left side of that shoe is the nickname “Drench,” a nod to Smith’s ability to splash long-range shots with regularity.

“I only told him [I wanted] two things: area code and my brother,” Smith said. “[Whitley] came up with the rest of it himself. He’s very good with this stuff, so I trust him enough to freestyle and have it looking cool.”

Maxey spent one of his first days back from the Sixers’ recent five-game road trip at a Snipes in North Philly, where he gifted a $500 shopping spree to 10 high-performing students from Unity in the Community, an organization “dedicated to improving the lives of young people through antiviolence programming.”

During the appearance, Maxey passed along a message from his mother, Denyse, who emphasized his grades must be on point in order to continue playing basketball. He also joked that all the shoes chosen needed to be New Balance, the brand with which he has a partnership. And when one young attendee was revealed to be named Luka after a certain point guard for the Dallas Mavericks, Maxey said, “I ain’t mad at that.”

It was also fitting that, when asked when he first started getting recognized while out and about in Philly, Maxey identified the period immediately following his Rising Stars appearance at 2022 All-Star Weekend. Less than two years later, this Snipes event occurred just after he was named an All-Star for the first time.

“It’s kind of surreal, man,” Maxey said. “It just makes you want to go out there and go even harder and try to inspire even more kids, even more people. I just really do appreciate the city of Philadelphia. Like I said, it’s my second home.

“It almost brings tears of joy to my eyes, seeing so many kids with [No. 0] jerseys and ‘Maxey’ jerseys. It’s all love, and I appreciate it.”

Maxey on Council’s impact: “I was watching his workout before the game [and] he was flying around, going 100 miles an hour. I was like, ‘Hey, man. Listen here: You’ve got to play 25 minutes tonight. You need to slow down.’ He’s a ball of energy, and we need that.”