Sixers' Brown braces for more losing, but progress

You can count on the 76ers having one of the worst win-loss records in NBA history for the second consecutive season.

They know it. Most fans know it.

With training camp opening Tuesday at Richard Stockton College in Galloway Township, N.J., the Sixers are about to embark on the second season of a two-year tank.

And there is no way to camouflage it.

"Everyone understands the reality even more so this year of what we started out with last year," coach Brett Brown said. "You know we knew it. Thaddeus [Young], Lavoy [Allen], Spencer [Hawes], and Evan [Turner] were all traded away."

Allen, Turner, and Hawes were shipped out of town at last season's trade deadline.

Young was sent packing in August. That's when the power forward was dealt to Minnesota as part of a three-team trade that also involved Cleveland.

Reigning rookie of the year Michael Carter-Williams is the Sixers' lone returning opening-day starter. But they are not sure the point guard will be available when the team opens the regular season at Indiana on Oct. 29. Carter-Williams won't be a full participant at the start of training camp. He had surgery May 6 to repair the labrum in his right shoulder.

So it's easy to see why this season is expected to be even worse than last year's 19-63 campaign, which included a record-tying 26-game losing streak.

Sacrificing wins, however, has been part of the plan since Sam Hinkie was hired as general manager in May 2013. Like last year, the Sixers will use this season for developing players, evaluating talent, and creating a culture. In the process, they hope to lose enough games to secure a top pick in the NBA draft for the second consecutive year.

"I have to stay on point to coach myself to remind us this is our compass," Brown said.

He won't allow himself to think about anything other than player development and monitoring the team's sports-science methods of training.

"I have to remind myself all of the time, because if I let it go, I think we are going to have a problem with culture," Brown said.

One quest is to improve Carter-Williams' three-point shooting, which was 26.4 percent last season.

Another issue will be how rookie center Nerlens Noel progresses on the court and studies the NBA game.

"Is he going to shoot 60 percent?" Brown said of the 6-foot-11, 216-pounder, who sat out last season while rehabbing his left knee.

Brown also has to figure out how to handle injured rookie center Joel Embiid.

"What system to do I have in place where he's being educated?" Brown said.

The third overall selection in the June draft will likely miss the entire season after having surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right foot the week before the draft.

Like last season with Noel, the Sixers will take their time with Embiid's rehab.

"Now more than ever for me, I have to remind myself and coach myself those things we declared from the day I was hired," Brown said. "You really have to hold those near and dear to your heart and don't blink."

@PompeyOnSixers