Posts for Sixers Category

Fun day down in Delaware, and nice to see some 5v5, full court, 76ers basketball again.

The Field House played host to this year’s iteration of the Blue X White scrimmage, the casual intra-squad exhibition that has kicked off the Sixers’ season in each of the past two years. This time, the squad was split into one group featuring starters and rotational players, and another with some bench pieces and veteran backup guys:

• blue team: Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, Al Horford, Josh Richardson, Ben Simmons, Raul Neto, Furkan Korkmaz,Haywood Highsmith, Norvel Pelle, Isaiah Miles
• white team: Mike Scott, Kyle O’Quinn, James Ennis, Trey Burke, Matisse Thybulle, Zhaire Smith, Jonah Bolden, Christ Koumadje, Marial Shayok, Shake Milton

Brett Brown did not actually “coach” either team, with Ime Udoka and Joseph Blair handling the blue squad and Kevin Young and John Bryant organizing the whites. That squad started Burke, Thybulle, Ennis, Scott, and O’Quinn, which made for a nice defensive test for the Sixers starters.

Continue Reading

Didn’t make it down to Sixers camp yesterday, but you might have seen this clip floating around on Twitter.

It’s Ben Simmons in a scrum with reporters, when Jack McCaffery of the Delco Times asks him about shooting three pointers in practice:

Ben Simmons does not want to give daily updates on how many shots he’s taking and if he’s made 3s

“Yeah I’ve had shots. I’ve played basketball. Come on man, that’s a dumb question”

Reporter mentions no made 3s in a game

“You’re right. I haven’t. But I’m an All-Star so” pic.twitter.com/6FNHbZWpgg

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) October 3, 2019

Jack’s first question is cut off in that clip, but it goes like this:

“Have you been getting any three point looks open in practice and are you satisfied with your opportunities to take them?”

Totally reasonable question. There’s nothing at all wrong with that.

Here’s Ben’s response to the question:

Continue Reading

If I gave you three storylines off the top of my head, three “narratives” that might define the Sixers’ season, I think I’d give you these, in order:

1. keeping Joel Embiid healthy and “delivering” him to the postseason
2. Ben Simmons’ jump shot, or lack thereof, specifically as it relates to spacing
3. perimeter shooting in general with the departure of JJ Redick and Jimmy Butler

Without Markelle Fultz in the fold this year, I guess the *hot* training camp item would probably be Simmons shooting video, which we’ve collected over the course of a full season now. Ben would spend part of every 2018 pregame warm up shooting from various distances, so if you made it down to the Wells Fargo Center early enough, you’d see that as part of his routine. He just didn’t shoot those shots during the game.

Has anything changed since then? Summer alterations to his mechanics? Sound muscle memory? Here are a few video clips via Jon Johnson and Rich Hofmann:

Continue Reading

The Sixers lost a lot when JJ Redick signed with the Pelicans this summer.

They lost a 40% three point shooter, a veteran who was the fulcrum not only of a number of designed Brett Brown play calls but also common actions that made up the backbone of the ‘A to B’ base offense. Redick and Joel Embiid exhibited a fantastic understanding of hand-off and screening concepts in the two-man game, which now falls on Josh Richardson to replicate as Redick’s replacement.

Tuesday, we asked Embiid about the Sixers’ new look offense and whether he felt like he could reproduce that success with somebody else in the shooting guard position:

“It’s different. 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.”

Richardson spoke today, Wednesday, and said the pair started working through that, communicating on floor spots, screens, and preferences. Sounds like he’s game, like he’s up for the challenge and looking forward to playing with Embiid.

Let’s take a look at the film then and see what we can find. I’ll give you three Redick clips and three Richardson clips, focusing on their off-ball movement in the hand-off game, beginning with this snippet from the 2018 playoffs:

Continue Reading

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:

Continue Reading

Ben Simmons says he recaptured his love for the game of basketball this summer.

Speaking to reporters at media day, the Sixers’ fourth-year point guard explained that he was “too worried about what people were saying” and has since blocked out the noise surrounding him.

“At the end of the day, I don’t really care anymore, unless it’s coming from somebody in my circle or from somebody trying to help me get better,” Simmons told us.

Ben was his typically short self on Monday, not in stature but in length of quote. He used the term “locked in” several times to describe the nature of his summer workouts and mindset heading into the season.

But of course the big story on Action News is and always will be Ben’s jump shot, at least until he goes out and knocks down a corner three.

Here’s every single thing he said about the shot on Monday:

Continue Reading