Sixers' Brown admires how Thunder was put together

OKLAHOMA CITY - Another opponent, another model for coach Brett Brown.

In the Oklahoma City Thunder, Brown sees an organization he wants his team to emulate. One that has used drafts, free agency and trades wisely to become one of the perennial powers in the rugged Western Conference. Eight of the players on the current roster were gotten by draft, six by trade and one through free agency.

Much of the roster that faced the 76ers last night at Chesapeake Energy Arena was gotten just as recently as the trade deadline.

Yes, Thunder coach Scott Brooks can still roll out Russell Westbrook and, when healthy again, Kevin Durant. But as everyone knows, it's the side pieces that are so important come playoff time, and OKC was able to bolster the roster with deadline add-ons Kyle Singler and Enes Kanter.

"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Sam Presti; I worked with him for many years," Brown said of the Oklahoma City general manager, who came from San Antonio, as Brown did. "In many levels, I pay attention to this program as much as any on how could we learn from the great things that they have done and things that they may have done differently.

"I think with the moves that they have made after the All-Star break, look at the DNA of the people brought in. I think Singler is a man, and there's a physical side to him. He's a 4-year college player. That's a veteran. And then Kanter's physical style . . .

"And then you look at Steven Adams' physical style and a lumberjack mentality and a physical side of this team. I think they are really deep and really good. If you're a 1 or 2 , you're not that thrilled looking down at a first-round matchup with a Kevin Durant and a team that's really good. I think Sam Presti has done a hell of a job."

And the surface has barely been scratched of what this team can do. Yesterday was the first time they could all practice together since the trade deadline because of a hectic schedule.

" a good player," Brooks said. "He's had a really good couple of years. His second year in, he had a little increase in his play and his third year, this year, he's having a good year. I think that's the progression that a lot of rookies have. I like what he does. I like his hands; I like his ability to score inside, his ability to get to the free throw line. He's able to make shots and he passes. We feel we have guys that can score off of his passing, with our ability to cut, with our ability to make shots. This is a work in progress. We're trying to learn things on the fly and trying to teach him things that we do. He's done a great job of picking up things."

Brown wouldn't mind picking some things up from Sam Presti and company.

When he went hard to the floor on Sunday night in Indiana, you figured Jason Richardson's mind would be racing. Back only a short time after missing 2 full years because of knee surgery, Richardson fell over a camerman and hit his left wrist hard on the camera.

As he popped back to his feet, Richardson waved off Brown and any idea he had of subbing for him, though the wrist hurt.

"I tried to brace myself with the fall, and my hand kind of went back and hit the camera," Richardson said. "It just went numb. I couldn't get any feeling to it. After about 4 or 5 minutes, it came back.

"Everybody was checking on me. I told them I wasn't sitting down. I told them that anything from my waist up, don't worry about it. If it's my waist down, then question me. My thing is, that I'm not going to worry about that . I was getting to the basket that game, and that was the first time I felt comfortable in my mind, getting there. Falling and getting my shot blocked, that's part of getting back to it. Most of the time when you get to the lane, you might get knocked on your butt. And in the mind game with myself, it proved that I'm ready for a fall. I wonder if my leg is going to allow me to get enough height when I jump in the lane. Those are they types of little questions that you ask yourself."

After missing Monday's game, Richardson was back in the lineup against Oklahoma City.