Here are Sixers, ready or not

IT IS one of the many catch phrases that litter the New England-accented vocabulary of 76ers coach Brett Brown, and it probably best sums up where the organization is now:

"Ready, fire, aim. Ready, fire aim."

You will hear it over and over again from the coach when he's talking about individual players who are not really ready to be on the stage on which he has to put them simply because his roster is so bare of the type of NBA talent a team usually boasts.

Tony Wroten is doing a good job of filling in at the point guard position until Michael Carter-Williams returns to game action, which is probably still about 2 weeks away. Wroten's career in the league probably will be a long one, but he's likely best suited to being a 20-25 minute guy who provides a tremendous offensive spark with his quick drives to the basket and frenetic pace.

Luc Mbah a Moute may be Brown's security blanket right now. He is a 6-year veteran with a defensive talent that most others on the team lack, and a calming influence that enables him to play a leadership role. He is being counted on to do a little bit of everything (rebound, defend, distribute and score) when, ideally, he would be a guy you would count on to simply be a defensive stopper.

Chris Johnson, Henry Sims, Brandon Davies, Jakarr Sampson are all players who are contributing minutes (some major), trying to find their niche in the league and probably being relied on to do more than they ever imagined in the league.

"Ready, fire, aim."

But no one has been thrown into the constant wave that is the NBA without any sort of floating device more than forward Malcolm Thomas. Acquired just 2 days before the season opener in Indiana, the 6-9, 225-pounder out of San Diego State was pressed into action in the first quarter against the Pacers due to foul trouble to Brown's front line. In fact, in the Sixers' three losses to start this season, Thomas has logged close to 17 minutes a game. In his 19 minutes in Saturday's 114-96 loss to the Miami Heat, Thomas grabbed nine rebounds and scored eight points off the bench.

It is about this time that most are saying: "Malcolm Who?"

Exactly the point.

When Brown first talked to Thomas he asked him what kind of skill set he had that could keep him in the NBA. "I can rebound," Thomas said.

"That's a start," replied the coach. And now here we are.

"When we got him, we talked candidly," Brown said. "Like, are you serious? You could be in Guangdong, China, or you can come play in the NBA. Really, here it is. Here's the opportunity. You're going to blink and you're going to say, you know . . . So here we are and it played out. Nobody promised him minutes or any perfect role at all in our recruitment and discussions with him, but it actually played out where he's been on the floor and a lot longer than I thought.

"I asked him, candidly, to grade himself, fitnesswise. An A's an A and an F's an F. He said he was a C. So I don't want to just come in and play him too much and injure him, that's not smart.

"I got nervous [against Indiana] that we were sort of forced to because of early foul trouble. Even with Luc back, in my view we sort of have five bigs instead of four. [Thomas] can't play the volume of minutes that he played."

"Can't," really, is never a word that can be used with this team. For instance, Chris Johnson can't be a starting two guard in the NBA, but he is. Henry Sims can't be a starting center, but he is. Brandon Davies can't be a key sub on this team, but there he is scoring 18 points off the bench on Saturday.

"Ready, fire, aim."

This is the land of NBA opportunity, this 76ers organization. Ready or not, here it is.