More faith in Bynum return

WHILE THE hulking figure did some light running and shooting at one end of the court after the 76ers had finished their practice Thursday, coach Doug Collins couldn't help but make his way down to observe and offer some words. Though he has been reluctant to talk or speculate about a possible debut of Andrew Bynum in order to concentrate on healthy players, Collins did open up a little about the team's prized summer acquisition.

With a sweat-drenched shirt on his back and a brace on his right knee, Bynum took some short, lefthanded jump-hooks from both sides of the basket, then took a series of 15-footers after backpedaling, stopping and jogging forward to receive passes from assistant coach Jeff Capel. For the first time this season, there really appears to be some serious progression in Bynum's recovery.

"It's a huge lift," said Collins of Bynum's improvement. "The thing I like is Andrew is a very hard worker. When he came here he knew nothing about our organization other than we wanted him, and he grew up in New Jersey and we wanted to make him a real focal point of what we were doing. He came in here with his own medical people and everything. Now, he's working with our people. I sense a real trust he has with all of the people working with him on a daily basis. I think that's a very positive sign. When I worked out [Wednesday] on the elliptical he was working out and the guy was working his tail off."

Jrue Holiday said a couple of weeks ago that Bynum possessed one of the brightest basketball minds he's ever encountered. Collins has talked of Bynum's relentless desire to get on the court for the Sixers and now he is witnessing it physically. To that end, he presented something to the 7-footer over the weekend.

"I had written him something 8 weeks ago that I'd never given him and I gave it to him Sunday afternoon when I came in and saw him working out," Collins said. "I had been holding this and I wanted him to have it. I told our team in Game 4 against Miami [two seasons ago] on Easter Sunday and I said, 'Where there's hope, there's faith, and where there's faith there's life, and when you have life you can live it to the fullest. All you want is a chance, you want hope.' And I said, 'You're starting to get hope again so that's why I held on to this for a while. I'm sure there were nights when you laid in that bed and that hope had turned to a little bit of despair. What's happening to my career? Am I going to be able to do it again? Are my legs going to get healthy? That $100 million I was looking at in the bank, where is that all now? I want you to have this now because I think the timing is right and I sense from you you're starting to get some hope again and once you have hope good things can happen. With hope also too goes a real humility at how quickly it can be lost.'

"He sees where we are right now. He knows were 16-23 and you think that he doesn't know that if he had been playing we could have seven or eight more wins? It's interesting, Pat Riley lost Dwyane Wade one year and went 15-67. The Spurs lost David Robinson and they went from a 60-win team to 17-47 when [coach Gregg Popovich] took over the team. That's the impact star players have on the game."

The Sixers on Thursday signed guard Shelvin Mack to a 10-day contract as former Villanova product Maalik Wayns' contract expired. The 6-3 Mack was drafted 34th overall by Washington in the 2011 draft. He played for the Wizards last season and was waived after playing seven games this year. He played 14 games in the NBADL this season, averaging 20.5 points, eight assists and 4.9 rebounds.

"Shelvin stepped in and I think he's going to be able to help us," said Doug Collins. "He's a guy who can play point guard so I feel good about him being out on the floor and being able to help us. He's got experience. We've got to be able to get Jrue [Holiday] off the ball some, both offensively and defensively because it's taking its toll on him.

"With Royal [Ivey] starting the year off getting banged up and getting sick we were in a position where we really didn't have a backup point guard. We signed Maalik from Day 1 as being our third. It wasn't that Maalik didn't do what he was supposed to do, we just put him in a role that he wasn't quite ready to do. We want to be able to still have Evan [Turner] handle the ball some with that second unit but we need another guy who can play pick-and-roll. The essence of most every offense, when you get down to it, is pick-and-roll in some form, whether middle, angle, side, whatever. I like [Mack's] tenacity. He is 6-3 but he was a wingspan that is almost 6-9, he's got long arms. I loved him when he played in college [Butler]. I thought he was a winner."