Joel Embiid showed up on day one of training camp sporting braids, which Brett Brown said he did not even notice.

“I’ll tell you what I loved – I loved his physical conditioning and his adamance to get to the rim,” the Sixers’ head coach said. “I should be scolded for not paying attention to hairstyles but I was just more impressed with his body and mentality, trying to just get deep catches. I really noticed that.”

“Well that’s good,” said Embiid, when made aware of the above quote. “Because that means we’re focusing on winning a championship. That’s all we care about. I don’t think we should focus on anybody else.”

That seemed to be the shared mentality through media day into Tuesday’s camp, just a “locked in” type of focus that a number of players talked about.

Interestingly enough, Ben Simmons stated that this was the best day one practice he’s been a part of since coming to Philadelphia, a sentiment that was echoed by Brown, who explained that the vibe felt right in Camden:

“The spirit of the gym stood out to me,” Brown said. “I think everybody (showed some positive) signs, where you could talk about a big/big pass from Al to Jo, or Jo to Al. You could see a two-man game with Josh and Joel in sort of that spot I had JJ (Redick) in. You can talk about Ben’s leadership, his authoritative leadership. Tobias, going from three to four to two back to three, his versatility, as an example. I only mentioned some of the starters but some of the younger guys and bench guys I could speak about, but there was just a vibe in the gym that is really exciting.”

We also saw the new faces practicing for the first time, which included Al Horford, who talked a bit about becoming familiar with a new team, new offense, and new setting:

“It’s really for me to get used to the offense system, where coach wants me to be, and understanding how to play off of Joel,” the 13-year NBA veteran said. “He can do so many things, so for me it’s about finding open spots, whether it’s slashing to the basket, spacing. That’s one thing I felt like we did a really good job of on this first day. We have guys who are so talented; Ben, his ability to see the floor and put pressure on the rim – for me it’s going to take time getting used to playing with a guy like him. But really it’s just figuring out my spots, where to get to, how coach wants me to play, the pace we’ll play at. A lot of good energy here, guys very willing to work and play hard.”

Josh Richardson as JJ Redick?

No doubt the Sixers lost a lot of shooting when JJ Redick signed as a free agent in New Orleans. He was averaging 18.1 points per game on 39.7% free throw shooting, and his on-court relationship with Embiid defined one of the key pieces of the Sixers’ base motion offense.

I asked Embiid what that might look like this season with Josh Richardson stepping into Redick’s role:

“It’s different,” the center explained. “Josh brings something different than JJ. JJ obviously with the crazy shots and off-balance threes and all of that. But Josh is more athletic than JJ, especially when it comes to back cutting and me throwing lobs, or him turning the corner and attacking the defender. I think in that sense he can do that better than JJ. But obviously we lose a lot of shooting, especially that connection of me screening for (Redick) and him screening for me. I’m going to get Josh on pace and teach him how we should play, especially with the action I’ve been running since JJ got here. I’m sure Josh is gonna be (able to do it). He’s so athletic and he’s intelligent. We’re going to figure it out.”

Picture this clip, then, with Richardson in Redick’s spot:

Fake DHO to a backdoor cut?

We’ll see if Embiid and Richardson can do things like that this season.

The challenge

There’s only one significant NBA rule change this year, and it’s the addition of the coaching challenge.

Teams will get one challenge per game, which will be signified by a “twirl of the finger” from the bench. Sequences that apply are personal foul calls, possession on out-of-bounds plays, and goaltending or basket interference. In each instance, the challenging team must use a timeout, which will affect the strategy of how coaches typically call for breaks in play. This won’t be like the NFL, where you only lose a timeout if you lose the challenge. In this case the timeout is gone whether you win or lose.

Here’s what Brown had to say about the rule:

Brett Brown: I’ve studied it a lot and we actually have a committee that was responsible for really studying it. I personally am willing to give it a chance. How we choose to use it from a strategy standpoint we’ve talked a lot about. It’s stuff that I probably wouldn’t share with everybody. I think that we’ve gone overboard trying to better understand it and I’m still trying to figure out the best way we can use it. I’m open minded and we’ve studied it in the G League. You can learn maybe a little bit from the NFL as an example. You better understand the technology that’s available to you at home and on the road and the rules as it relates to that. But I’m open minded to it.

Crossing Broad: Is it one of those things where you might want to see it play out a couple of times, consider the results, and then sort of define your approach from there?

Brett Brown: I think the thing I’m most curious about is the equality of wireless services to give that, especially in real time look at ‘oh you should challenge this‘ on the road. Is it equal resources both on the road and at home? That’s where my head is at. I think if we all come out of this saying ‘yes it is (equal),’ then I think it’s a really interesting rule to explore. And I give commissioner Silver credit for using the G-League as kind of a chip to use, whether it’s this or the single free throw, the 14-second shot clock after an offensive rebound. I’m anxious to see it and we have strategies.

It’ll definitely be interesting to see. I think you’re probably going to see a “feeling out” period for a little bit, similar to what we’re witnessing this year with the ability of NFL coaches to challenge pass interference. When those coaches and analytics departments get a feel for how the officials are ruling on these plays, they’ll tweak their strategies from there.

Here’s some more video from today’s practice: