Elton Brand‘s 2016 mentor season is coming to a close, and it’s time to evaluate his season.
Elton Brand was brought in as a surprise addition to this 2016 Philadelphia 76ers squad. The need for a veteran presence had been talked about all year with the team and the next steps in their rebuild, and Carl Landry was deemed as “not enough” in that category.
Brand, a skilled veteran who spent his college years at Duke University, was living in Philadelphia and open to coming back to the league, especially as a mentor to some younger guys from a team he spent four previous seasons with.
One of the huge selling points for Brand to come onto the team to be a mentor was that his main priority would be Jahlil Okafor, another Duke student who could just be one of the next best frontcourt players in the NBA. Okafor had gotten into a little bit of trouble earlier in the season with a fight incident outside of a Boston nightclub, as well as a speeding ticket on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and an incident outside of a Philly nightclub. It looked as if perhaps Brand was brought on to babysit Okafor and keep track of him.
If that was the case — I don’t believe it was — it worked. Okafor didn’t get into any trouble (that we know of) after Brand was signed to the team. I don’t think Brand was brought on to be a babysitter to Okafor, but I do think the main reason he was brought on was to help Okafor develop and learn his way around the league. Now that Okafor’s season has ended with a surgery to repair a slight meniscus tear in his knee, it’s time we evaluate Brand’s season as a mentor.
In Brand’s first 25 games as a Sixer this season, he didn’t play one minute of basketball, and was declared inactive for 15 games, as the Sixers showed that they really didn’t intend on using him a whole lot, they simply wanted him around as a veteran presence.
Finally, on the 26th game, against the Miami Heat, and due to injuries to Jahlil Okafor, Nerlens Noel, and Christian Wood, Brand had to be used at certain points in the game. He played 13 minutes, scored 8 points and pulled in 4 rebounds. Not too shabby for someone who hadn’t seen playing time in an NBA game in about a year.
Since that game, Brand has played in 11 more games of a possible 13. Brand has played just over 11 minutes per game, putting up 4.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.9 assists. All in all, not too shabby for the little amounts of time he sees on the floor.
Really, I see all of this playing time, and any playing time he gets from here on out, as an added bonus to his season. He was never supposed to be on the floor helping the Sixers in games. He was supposed to be on the bench, talking to players, acting as a player-coach that could help players see what they needed to do in order to develop themselves most effectively in the NBA.
So, since Brand’s purpose was more to help Okafor, let’s look at how Jah did before Brand came on the team and his numbers after.
Before Brand came around, Okafor had done a decent job of paving a path for himself. He was putting up 17.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game, while shooting 46.6 percent from the field.
After Brand’s return to his former team, Okafor averaged 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game. He shot an increased 58.2 percent from the field. What’s better than his per-game numbers, though, is that throughout this time period, Okafor showed he could take some shots with some range on them, and function as a power forward decently, all while making a higher quantity of shots.
I’m sure as Okafor was transitioning from center to power forward, Brand, a player of both of those positions as well, was helping him through it, and giving him pointers of what he had learned through his many years in the league.
It’s safe to say that Brand had a decent impact on this year’s team as far as being a mentor. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if the Sixers deem Brand a necessary part of their rebuild, or if he gets pushed out as Okafor matures on his own. Unfortunately, I think when we look at Okafor’s fully developed game, we won’t credit much of it to Brand’s help in mentoring him, but I do think he deserves a lot of credit for how well this season went for the rookie.
Brand may finally be ready to hang up the hat after this season and officially retire. He can rest easy knowing his final year helped one of the best up-and-coming players in the NBA develop.