From a point of competitiveness now down to a point in ineptness, the Philadelphia 76ers have once more taken on the image of a basketball team at the starting line to a massive rebuild.
First it was the game they could have and should have won against the Sacramento Kings after a game they lost to the powerhouse Los Angeles Clippers by six. After those two games, the team has begun to wane, to tumble, against the New Orleans Pelicans, the Dallas Mavericks, the Detroit Pistons, the Washington Wizards, and the Orlando Magic. Since the All Star break, the Philadelphia 76ers, once hoped to be a team putting together a core of players who would form the foundation for the next wave of new faces, now appears to be a tired fighter at the end of his career, gasping for air, leaning heavily into the ropes hoping he can just hold on long enough to avoid being knocked out before the final round.
My how things have changed.
Head coach Brett Brown has noticed, and wasted no time sharing his thoughts with philly.com writer Bob Cooney about the recent slide from the players:
"There were things that aren’t acceptable, aren’t professional, that aren’t anything that we stand for or drill at, and you call them out is what you do. They (Orlando Magic) have some good, young talent, but I think we started as poor as poor can be. It’s unacceptable. It’s not professional. The only thing that we did in the second half was do our job. And that’s how I see it. Everybody was poor. We don’t want our record to define how people look at us,” Brown said. “For the most part I feel like we’ve gained the respect of the league because we play hard. We haven’t done that much since the All-Star break. I don’t know why. And that’s a fact. That’s hard to swallow and completely unacceptable. We need to find who we are. For the most part, we compete. Tonight, we didn’t do our job in the first half and that is not going to work. And that’s that.”"
While the team is absorbing another roster shuffle, in the lastest experiment of trying to fit Nerlens Noel at his more natural roster role of center, Brown has pushed Jahlil Okafor out to the power forward postion. But is the sudden absence of defense all an Jahlil Okafor? Not by the timetable of a 20 year old in his first NBA season. And that’s not how his teammate Elton Brand sees it, where he also had something to say to Bob Cooney:
"It’s just the awareness of it. It’s different in the NBA. You can play zone in college, camp in the lane defensively, you can do things differently. Here, for him, it’s just the awareness. He can move his feet fine and he wants to compete, but it’s just the awareness. Running back and seeing a John Wall, or a speedy point guard coming at him, it’s just anticipating the next play, the next step. Even if I don’t need to be there, I may need to be there. Because in this league if you have to think about it, it’s too late. That’s it, his awareness and his anticipation. Other than that, he’s fine. He’s there, he’s running back, he’s ahead of the ball. He just has to see things a little bit better. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s just a case of not being sure and then that leads to being out of position and it doesn’t look good. But he’s trying and he’ll get it. It’s not like he’s getting beat down the court every time.” – Elton Brand as interviewed by Bob Cooney of philly.com"
Head Coach Brett Brown has been impressed by his rookie as well:
"His (Jahlil Okafor’s) body’s the best it’s ever been,” Brown said on Sunday. “When you look at his weight, when you look at his skin fold, when you look at his metrics to his body fat, his body composition, it’s the best it’s ever been. Those are facts, and he’s worked to do that. He came back from All-Star break lean. And I respect that. He feels good about himself. I’m seeing more trips in transition defense that are faster,” said Brown. “I’m seeing more half-court possessions where he’s not hugged up on a weak side and getting over to the ball side a little bit sooner. I see a little bit more consistent voice in pick-and-roll defense, where he’s giving some instruction to the person who’s about to get hit with a pick and roll. I see everything happen a little bit quicker, a little bit longer, a little bit more consistently. We can’t forget he was going to be a sophomore in college.” – Brown as interviewed by Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com"
This transformation began when Sixers executive Jerry Colangelo noted before the All Star break that Nerlens Noel was a rim-protecting center. Since that time, the team has been placing Noel at the center and Okafor out at the four position, with mixed results.
Next: Philadelphia 76ers: Jerry Colangelo is Not Transparent About Moves
The team gets another chance to get back on track tonight at the 28-30 Washington Wizards less than 24 hours after losing badly to the Orlando Magic in Florida. The team will get a break tomorrow before a two day home stand. At one point, the team’s winning ways brought concern as to how they would fall when the 2016 NBA draft arrived. As it stands now, the team will be hard pressed to duplicate last season’s 18 win performance.