It’s pretty cool seeing a professional sports team run the same drills you used to run in high school.

The Sixers capped off Monday’s training session with free-throw shooting and a simple rule: make two shots and you’re good, miss a shot and everybody runs a suicide, up and back the entire length of the court.

Here’s some video of Markelle Fultz getting his turn in the rotation if you’d like to over-analyze his free-throw form:

Big deal?

Probably not, but the gym was pretty full at this point, with 25-30 media in the corner and some dignitary-types who were on hand for a post-practice event to celebrate the Sixers’ upcoming China trip. Brett Brown knew the cameras were on when he tossed the ball to Fultz and told him that it was his turn to shoot.

He knew what he was doing.

It was a full go today for everybody except Joel Embiid, who took a break for load management but has no health concerns to speak of. Brown says he’ll have his entire group ready and available for tomorrow night’s intra-squad Palestra scrimmage, minus Zhaire Smith.

“We’re looking forward to having a full group, less Zhaire, and I think the scrimmage is going to be great,” said the head ball coach.

It’ll be Sixers vs. Sixers tomorrow evening for the second straight season. Last year’s game was a massive success, with a hungry crowd on hand to watch Kris Humphries deny Ben Simmons a clear path to the rim for an easy dunk.

This year it’s probably all eyes on Fultz, who enters camp as the biggest question mark in a year when the Sixers are expected to compete for an Eastern Conference title.

Notes from Brown’s media availability today:

  • he still wants Joel Embiid to shoot three pointers this year – “We’re going to obviously want to get him inside because he’s as big as anybody in the NBA, but to feel like that’s the only thing he can do is really naive, and I don’t think very good coaching. So me coaching him, getting that balance of post up, post up, post up, vs. shooting some threes and putting Markelle in a pick and roll, that interests me.”
  • RE: Brown and GM Elton Brand looking to add talent before the start of the season: “we’re always spit-balling, always aware, always trying to find ways to make ourselves better. My immediate focus right now is this gym.”
  • The starting group is not just going to automatically be what we saw last year (Brown provided an example of using Manu Ginobili the final 7 minutes of each quarter during the later portion of his career) “I’m open. I’m just coming in here trying to be thoughtful of all the decisions we make.”
  • Mike Muscala’s switching ability is better than anticipated and he’s also able to give Embiid different defensive looks in practice, mirrors a bit of what the Celtics showed him with Al Horford last year
  • Feels like the culture and structure in Philly is strong enough to invite outsiders in (in response to a question about doing due diligence with trades and free agency, question was hinting at the Jimmy Butler situation)
  • Part of doing the Palestra scrimmage feels like a responsibility, a way to give back to the community and the basketball fraternity in general

That’s pretty much it, honestly. Embiid stuck around for a while after practice and worked on his post game and some three-point shooting. Fultz was back in the weight room shortly after the session wrapped up.

At this point, all of the questions have been asked. We’ll see the Sixers back on the floor tomorrow night at the Palestra and we’ll have some much more interesting things to talk about.