CAMDEN, N.J. — After one of the most eventful offseasons in franchise history, the Sixers began training camp from their practice facility Tuesday morning.
In the first opportunity to speak with head coach Nick Nurse and select players since camp began, there was plenty to take away from Day 1.
The Sixers have a pair of brand new starters this season and their likely first two off the bench were also offseason acquisitions. The team needs to take the time and put in the effort to ensure they are on the same page, especially defensively where communication and focus will be key.
Nurse said he began the day, as he does every year, with a 30-minute period in which the team discussed a shared vision for the season before taking the floor and focusing on the fundamentals.
“You have to start building your defense, and that starts with getting your defense set up and all that kind of stuff,” Nurse said. “Get a lot of transition defensive drills, and then I went to the other end of ending our defense. A lot of blocking out drills. Got into some real basic, Day 1 type stuff, basic foundational defensive principles, and just get them competing.”
As the Sixers work to establish chemistry across the roster, building that foundation through the fundamentals is an important first step.
Despite the arrival of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, the ability and availability of Joel Embiid will once again play a pivotal role in how far the Sixers can go this season.
With the first opportunity to speak with Nurse came the first official update on Embiid for the new season.
“He looked great. Very, very good news from the standpoint of where it's been the last couple years, the last couple summers leading into today. He looked great. Full participant all the way through; it's great to see.”
Embiid was not made available after practice, but he did discuss his health at Media Day.
“I'm good. Still pretty good. Obviously, gotta build it up because you want to be at your peak in April, May.”
Embiid, who has noticeably slimmed down once again, also joked that he’s gained a lot of weight during the offseason before again confirming that he feels good ahead of the season.
While there is less direct pressure on Embiid this season, there is arguably more pressure for him to improve defensively after last season. His improved health and conditioning should at least put him in a better position to do so.
Tuesday marked the first opportunity for many within the Sixers to work alongside some of the team’s offseason additions, including LeBron James.
“[He’s] very vocal,” Nurse said of James. “You hear his voice. He talks extremely loud on defense, and I think he obviously is an example setter, right? He leads by example, and he was certainly vocal in everything, but especially in the defensive breakdown stuff.”
That vocality is a major positive for a Sixers team that not only needs LeBron’s talent, but his experience. As for James' specific role within Nurse's scheme, that will take more time to define.
“He's very versatile, right? I got an idea, as I do with every guy, what their role should be and even like bullet points underneath it. But I kind of want to see the group for a couple weeks before I kind of start really trying to narrow that down.
“I want to collaborate with each player on that to see, you know. I think that's one thing we need to do is clearly define roles for everybody. But I think that's not yet. I think we need to see more just action, and then you know I think that'll clear up the vision of it a little bit.”
The conversation around James will eventually shift toward basketball, but his impact on the Sixers extends well beyond the court.
It’s been said by others, but the media buzz around the Sixers is at an all-time high, at least in my years covering the team.
The first day of training camp always promises excitement, but there is an obvious difference this year, as the LeBron James effect has taken over the scene. Media Day saw roughly twice the crowd that typically attends, and Day 1 of camp was a similar scene.
The increased media presence should give fans a larger window into the team, but there is a potential negative to that attention, something that James acknowledged during his Media Day availability.
It’s up to the team to keep their focus on the upcoming season, and the early signs show that they already understand that.
The early returns on what it’s like to be teammates with LeBron James are encouraging. Any worries of his presence stealing the team’s focus appear to be a non-issue, at least according to VJ Edgecombe.
“It was great,” Edgecombe said of practicing with LeBron. “I say we're between the lines now. That's my teammate. That's my brother. That's who I'm going to war with for the rest of the year. And we're between the lines.”
Playing alongside any notable player, let alone one of the top players in the history of the game, can be a distraction if players are not focused, but with the arrival of training camp, there’s no time now for the Sixers to be starstruck.
“All the starstruck, all that's gone out the window,” Edgecombe said. “We're competing, and today I think we did a really good job of that.”
Edgecombe credited Nurse for setting that tone with the team's pre-practice discussion, as the Sixers jointly spent time “laying down the principles” for the season ahead. If Day 1 was any indication, the Sixers understand the level of focus that will be required of them throughout the season.
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