Cooney: Future is finally here and now for Brown, Sixers

TWO YEARS AGO, Brett Brown helplessly watched as then-general manager Sam Hinkie made the final decisions on the 76ers' two first-round draft picks. With the third overall selection, Hinkie went with injured big man Joel Embiid out of Kansas. Embiid had fractured the navicular bone in his right foot during predraft workouts and it was known he most likely would miss his initial season in the NBA.

Seven spots later, Hinkie surprised many with the selection of point guard Elfrid Payton out of Louisiana-Lafayette. The image of Michael Carter-Williams, the team's starting point guard, who just came off a rookie-of-the-year season, still resonates in many minds, with his look of befuddlement from his seat in Barclays Center in Brooklyn, only feet from Payton. It was later announced the Sixers had traded Payton to Orlando for the rights to Dario Saric, taken by the Magic with the 12th pick.

Saric was bound by contract to his team in Turkey at the time, so all knew it would be at least two years before he could come play in the NBA.

The two first-round picks made Brown feel as if he had been kicked in the stomach. Coming off his first season, going 19-63, he knew he wouldn't see any help from his two first-round picks for quite a while. His excitement for the draft floated away like a helium balloon escaping from a child's hand at a carnival. Little did he know Embiid would miss two full seasons, and the probability that Saric is here for the 2016-17 season is still iffy.

"It was a redshirt year," he said Thursday night, moments after the future of this organization smacked him right in the face when the team chose Ben Simmons with the top pick. Later, with the 24th pick, the team took 6-7 shooting guard/small forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, from France, who played last season in the Adriatic League. With the 26th selection, the Sixers took 6-7 shooting guard Furkan Korkmaz, a teammate of Saric's with Anadolu Efes in Turkey.

Brown spoke glowingly of Simmons' talent and versatility and how he envisions using him initially as a power forward, but in many other positions down the road, including point guard. Battles will be won in training camp come September. The new picks will practice next week when the team goes to Utah for workouts before beginning Summer League play. The future is here, not years down the road, as it has been since Brown took the job in August 2013.

Asked about the fact that the future appears to be here and now, Brown replied: "It does, and we expect to learn more news on Dario very soon. We saw Joel go up and down in a controlled five-on-five environment a few days ago. We've now drafted something very special in Ben Simmons. So when you start adding that into the mix of what we have, and add that, sort of, future that we have with other draft picks coming up, you can't help but feel like . . . You can actually touch people and see a team that's taking shape, where you can feel like it's not going to move a lot. There are a few people on this team now that we can touch and wrap our arms around. I feel like we can grow with it as a city and as an organization.

"Philosophically, I would have been amazed if we thought a 'five' man was the best player in this year's draft and we would have taken him. I don't believe that would have happened. Easier for me to say that, because Ben is a 'four,' a 'three' and maybe some nights a 'one' down the road. We want to start looking at positionally balanced people and fill up some holes. I do think that this (past) year, that was not the philosophy, and it's easier for me to say that, because Ben was the best player in the draft as we saw it."

And a player Brown can immediately figure how to best fit with an overloaded front line that still includes Embiid, Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel. Though many trades were talked about during the early part of the first round, nothing came about. But Brown can toy with Simmons in different rotations, can play him at as many as three positions and can form him into what he wants now. With that, and the progression of Embiid's health and the possibility of a Saric arrival, it's go time.

"Now I can get to work, and now I know where I'm going to be to find a place and settle down and get into the gym and just focus on getting better," Simmons said on a conference call with the media. "They can put me at any position on the court and it can work. I'm a 6-10 point forward to point guard. I think I can play anywhere. Those guys (the bigs) are completely different to what I bring.

"If you want it to work, you make it work, so I'm really looking forward to this. I'm part of the family now, so you've got to trust (the process). You've got to go with it and you've got to work hard. They know I can play the point forward position, and I'm comfortable bringing the ball up, so I think that's one of those things we'll talk about and discuss a lot."

Such a conversation will take place Friday with his coach, when Simmons makes his way to Philadelphia to meet with the local media.

Plans can immediately begin to be made, rotations pondered. The term "down the road" is no longer measured in years, but in days. A far cry from the empty feeling Brown was stuck with two drafts ago.

"The mission is still to try to get that positionally balanced team," Brown said. "Ben's versatility and physicality, combined with how we think we feel like we can grow his skill package, especially shooting, is going to make him different, very different if we can do some of those things that we just said. Personally, I look forward coaching him.

"There's a lot of work to be done. I think you can see some Draymond (Green of Golden State) usage in him, in that he can rebound and lead a break. I think Saric does this, as well. You watch these guys defense-rebound, and we'll encourage it, to just hit the deck and lead a break. It's one of the hardest things to defend, and one of the things you want to exploit offensively is if you can find a rebounder. (Charles) Barkley did it. Rebound and just take off and you lead the break. That's as good a way as you can go and get out and run. He does that, and we want to encourage that. (The plethora of big men) will sort itself out. Tonight, we'll sort some stuff out, and, in the preseason, we'll figure it out."

You can understand Brown's urgency.

@BobCooney76

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