Would you sign up to play for a team if minutes were not guaranteed? In the middle of a global pandemic?

That’s what 29-year-old Australia native Ryan Broekhoff did when he agreed to travel to Florida with the Sixers, enter the Disney bubble, and fill out the 17-man roster that NBA squads are allowed to bring with them to Orlando.

Head coach Brett Brown admitted today that he was “shocked” Broekhoff agreed to link up with his team, but for the veteran free agent, it was a chance to roll with a second NBA team after playing the first five years of his career in Europe.

“I think the opportunity in the end was too hard to pass up,” Broekhoff told reporters on an afternoon Zoom call. “A chance to work with coach Brown and the Philadelphia 76ers and have the opportunity to go into what’s going to be a very unique environment down in Orlando. I still feel like I’m on the cusp of finding somewhere steady in the NBA, and hopefully that will be Philly.”

Broekhoff says he’s known Brown for a while, joking that he cut him from the 2012 London Olympics squad. He says the pair have had more conversations since Brett was renamed coach of the Australian national team.

He also admitted that deciding to play at all following the season’s postponement was a difficult process.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision by any means, to come back,” he explained. “I have a wife and a one-year old son, and my wife has an auto-immune disease, so she’s at high risk for the COVID. It’s taken a lot for us to be able to get to this point where we signed. We spoke to Elton Brand and spoke to coach and just wanted to get some more information of how the bubble would be down in Orlando, and if anything happens at home, what are my options to get back and take care of my family.”

On paper, Broekhoff should fill a shooting need for the Sixers. In two seasons with Dallas, he went 40.3% from three, taking 144 of his 185 total field goals from beyond the arc. That’s 78%.

As such, he could hypothetically give you some spot shooting off the bench and help space things out if it’s getting too packed around the paint.

“You look back at JJ (Redick) and (Marco) Belinelli from a few years ago, just the style of play, obviously every team is looking for shooting,” said Broekhoff. “Three point shooting I guess is the way the game is transitioning, so there’s a premium on that. I saw it as an opportunity with a skill set of mine to come in and hopefully find some opportunity to replicate what those guys have done.”

This won’t be the same fit as Dallas, which used more pick and roll than the Sixers (as almost every NBA team does). But Broekhoff doesn’t see an issue transitioning into what has traditionally been a more uptempo Philadelphia motion offense.

“I think the fit in should be pretty seamless,” he said. “You’ve got Ben, you’ve got Embiid, and they command attention in and around the post area. The best way to mitigate that is surround them with shooting options and spread the floor. Hopefully I can be one of those guys who keeps my man occupied and let’s the big guys do what they do close to the rim. Ben in the post on-one-one is basically unstoppable, so the more chances we can get those one-on-ones, the better the team will be.”

Here are some highlights to chew on. Only 30 more days until we’ve got NBA games to watch again: