Cooney: Loss of Ben Simmons dulls excitement

AS 76ER players wandered into their sprawling new practice facility on the Camden waterfront Sunday for their first official practice in their new digs, they kept their heads low, chins buried in chests as a misty rain fell upon them. It was the rain that kept heads bowed, you would think. Or maybe it was the heavy cloud that will hang over this team for a long time as rookie Ben Simmons recovers from a fracture of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot, suffered Friday during the final moments of training camp at Stockton University.

An immeasurable amount of excitement surrounded this team since Simmons was taken with the top pick in June, then displayed his talent during summer leagues. For the span of a few weeks, the Sixers climbed to the unfathomable position of most talked-about sports team in Philly. Then came Carson Wentz, which elevated the Eagles back to their perch, and now an injury to a highly touted rookie brings a sense of unfortunate normalcy back to the Sixers.

"Nothing has been determined as of yet with regard to surgery or a timeline or anything of the sort," said general manager Bryan Colangelo, who later said surgery was "most likely."

"We are continuing the process of evaluating and seeking additional medical opinion and expertise across the board. We are, obviously, all disappointed this happened. I feel very badly for Ben to be in this situation to start his career this way. This is an injury that he should come back from and have a very successful and long career. It's been the case with several athletes who have experienced this similar type of injury. It was an acute injury. This is something that we want to make sure that we get right before any determination is made, and we're continuing that process.''

If anything obvious came out of training camp from the limited amount of time the media was allowed to witness scrimmaging, it was that coach Brett Brown's offense was going to completely revolve around the 6-10, 245-pounder.

"Go, go, go," Brown shouted when Simmons grabbed a defensive rebound. At the end of one scrimmage, Simmons' team had the ball three times in late possessions of a close game. Each time, the play revolved around Simmons.

"Pace is key and the pass is still the king,'' Brown has said numerous times about the style he wants his team to play. Now, the player who could best implement those plans is shelved, another heavy blow to a franchise that has been besieged by bad health news over the past four seasons.

Nerlens Noel missed his first season recovering from knee surgery, Joel Embiid missed his first two seasons after two foot surgeries, and a torn meniscus cost Jahlil Okafor 29 games last season.

With all those pieces seemingly healthy this season, and with the addition of Dario Saric and some veterans who have learned what it takes to win in the NBA, Simmons seemed to be the addition that would carry the team from the depths of a 47-199 record over the past three seasons. His passing skills, one NBA executive told me, "could make him one of the most elite passers in league history." Simmons is fast, quick and is an instant fastbreak once he snares a defensive rebound.

That is all gone now, and for how long probably won't be known for months. It puts Brown in the all-too-familiar position of having to move forward with a roster he thought would be stronger.

"I think when you first hear the news, we've all been hit in the stomach and you lose your wind," Brown said. "Then after a while you get it back and you move on. I feel, for me, that's where I am at. I have to take this group and make it work. I really believe that this situation, somebody is going to emerge, an opportunity is going to unfold and we're going to see something that we never would have learned about. I know that intimately. There is nobody, sadly, that has more experience dealing with injured draft picks than we have. Over the course of time you learn how to best deal with it. I have seen this just every year I've been here so I truly see the situation like that.'

But how do you move forward? How do you get the level of anticipation back in your players when the one who may be your best doesn't know when he will make his NBA debut?

"It's basic things," Brown said. "There has to be a real level of resilience. There's got to be a level of excitement that new opportunities have presented themselves. It's a group that really hasn't spent much time with each other. It's not like they can call upon this strong friendship or this strong bond. We are a very young, new team. You don't absorb a hit like losing Ben like you could if you were a veteran team that has been with each other on the floor a long time.''

Pace still will be the starting point for Brown's offense, but instead of having a 6-10 burst of speed rumbling to the basket or whipping outlets and kickouts, it now will be orchestrated by point guards Jerryd Bayless, Sergio Rodriguez and T.J. McConnell. The hope is that Saric, the rookie whose game bares some similarities to that of Simmons, can provide some of the end-to-end rushes that undoubtedly would have been so common.

The Sixers haven't had much semblance of anything positive over the past three seasons. They simply didn't have enough talent to compete consistently. And when that happens, you look to something that you can rely, whether it be a play, a player or a scheme.

Simmons seemed to be just that. This group is one that is painfully young, with three of its core players (Embiid, Simmons and Saric) having never stepped on an NBA court. To think wins would come frequently at the start of the season was unrealistic. But while the first few months probably were going to be for Brown to figure out how to best mesh his talent, Simmons was a player whose style could overshadow other deficiencies.

And while Embiid tantalizes imaginations and others provide hope, it's not the same. Not the same as it was during the summer excitement, but much of the same as the previous three seasons of waiting out an injury.

"I'm disappointed for him," Okafor said. "I know how badly he wanted to bring some joy to the city of Philadelphia and how badly he wanted to perform. It's unfortunate.

"We really didn't have an identity yet. We're still a bunch of new guys trying to figure each other out. I think the city still has a lot to be excited about with the return of Joel Embiid, the improvement of all of our players and I finally get to return to the floor after having my season shortened. So we're still excited. We wanted to play with him, but we have a lot to be happy about, too.''

Perhaps, but just not right now. It will take a while to recover from this hangover.

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog