September 29, 2015

Sixers Training Camp notes, Day 1

By Rich Hofmann
PhillyVoice Contributor

Rich Hofmann/for PhillyVoice

Brett Brown, after practice.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Sixers were officially back on the court at Stockton University for the first day of training camp. The session, which was closed to the media until the very end, lasted a little under three hours. Here are some of my takeaways:

• We have already talked quite a bit about Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor’s on-court fit, but many of the questions today were centered around how they get along off the court. Do they need to be best friends for their partnership to work?

• Brett Brown had an interesting answer to that question: "If you gave me a choice, I wish they could hang out. But if they don’t, I don’t see it being as important as probably five years ago. On the court, for sure. You reference some of those great Chicago Bulls teams, [Dennis] Rodman never spoke to anybody and they had great chemistry as a team. They played hard, they played together. I’ve been on lots of good teams and they don’t necessarily have to hang out. I think it’s easier for [Okafor and Noel] to because they’re 20 and they have video games, no wives and children, and home responsibilities that can get people away from you.”

• Nerlens on the same question: “Most definitely. We’ll be around each other regardless no mater what. You know, regardless if we go to the movies or just team events. I think you know we will be spending a lot of time in the locker room as well, so I think it’s just going to grow from here.”

• Here are a couple of crappy videos of the big guys going through shooting drills:

Shooting Practice 1 from Rich Hofmann on Vimeo.

Shooting Drills 2 from Rich Hofmann on Vimeo.

• Carl Landry, Kendall Marshall, and Tony Wroten didn’t fully practice, but Brown said they were able to do some scripting and 5-on-0 drills. Toward the end of practice, Wroten was partaking in shooting drills as well.

• Brown reiterated that the team will likely keep three of these six point guards: T.J. McConnell, Pierre Jackson, Scottie Wilbekin, Tony Wroten, Isaiah Canaan, and Kendall Marshall. It will be interesting to see if the Sixers stick to that plan if Marshall and Wroten, who I consider the best two players of that group, can’t get on the court to start the season.

• Nik Stauskas mentioned that he hopes Jahlil Okafor can throw some of the cross-court “one-hand bullets” to shooters that DeMarcus Cousins was known for in Sacramento.

• Here is a blurry pic of Brett Brown chatting with Joel Embiid (and Joel Embiid’s gigantic crutches) at the end of practice. Brown said that he and Embiid went to Saturday’s big event at the World Meeting of Families, which the injured 21-year-old center documented on Instagram (good to see Jojo has my skill with the iPhone camera):