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Cooney: Rookie Luwawu-Cabarrot growing into key role for the Sixers

THE FIRST time Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot took the floor as an NBA professional, his eyes were as wide as humanly possible. Summer leagues seldom give a true indication of what may become of a young player, particularly one chosen with the 24th overall pick last June after helping lead Mega Leks win the Serbian Cup. Many thought this would be a year for Luwawu-Cabarrot to improve his skills by getting many minutes of playing time with the 76ers' NBA Development League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers.

THE FIRST time Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot took the floor as an NBA professional, his eyes were as wide as humanly possible. Summer leagues seldom give a true indication of what may become of a young player, particularly one chosen with the 24th overall pick last June after helping lead Mega Leks win the Serbian Cup. Many thought this would be a year for Luwawu-Cabarrot to improve his skills by getting many minutes of playing time with the 76ers' NBA Development League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers.

The plan was for the 6-6 guard/forward to improve his jump shot, which was still heavy from distance, with little arc and a tendency to come hard off the rim. His athleticism is perfect for the fast pace coach Brett Brown wants to play, as Luwawu-Cabarrot is terrific at running the floor.

But a bevy of circumstances never afforded the Sixers the luxury of sending their rookie down to fine-tune his game. Most notably, rooke Ben Simmons fractured his foot the final day of training camp and Jerryd Bayless tore ligaments in his wrist, also at training camp, and valiantly tried to play through the pain. He was able to see action in only three games, however, before shutting it down for season-ending surgery.

So, for better or worse, Luwawu-Cabarrot stayed and watched and learned, and now has become a big part of Brown's rotation as the coach has grown more and more confident in his play.

"It's always in my mind to give my best all the time, and if the coach appreciates that he's going to put me on the court, because I give energy and I bring what I'm bringing always," Luwawu-Cabarrot said.

The 21-year-old Frenchman kind of epitomizes what this season really is all about - developing skills, experimenting who might fit best with whom and keeping a keen eye on the future.

Over the past seven games, Luwawu-Cabarrot has gotten close to 17 minutes of play and has shown flashes of offense – posting his only two double-figure games – and a willingness to play perimeter defense. He has gotten much stronger going to the basket and has a nice eye for finding open teammates.

Those are all qualities that could help any player looking to make this roster in the future.

"He's a flier," said Brown, who sat backup guard Sergio Rodriguez on Saturday in Atlanta to get Luwawu-Cabarrot more playing time. "Because of injury to Ben and Jerryd, he's put himself in a position where you really consider him, and, as time has unfolded, I've considered him enough to sit Sergio Rodriguez, give Nik Stauskas the ball and look at him in that situation and give Timmy more minutes. I don't see that being a constant, but that influenced that decision. My job is to always find that line of experimenting and developing and winning games, and Timmy was the recipient of how we see him, really how we viewed him in Atlanta. In general, he's moving in a direction in a quicker way than we had expected, by and large, because of injuries that have put him in that position and he has taken advantage of it."

Luwawu-Cabarrot's eyes now give off a hard stare when he is on the court, a look of being in constant attack mode, unlike the deer-in-the-headlights glare he displayed last summer. His confidence has grown with each passing day, as he has gotten used to the styles and ways that are the NBA.

"He plays downhill and the decisions he makes once he's at the rim have been more sophisticated than I thought," Brown said. "He's always had that athleticism, but now he's learning how to drive his car in traffic. He is our most gifted runner; he is our most athletic wing. We want to play fast. I think T.J. (McConnell) is as good as there is in the NBA on kick-aheads and sending the ball up the floor. All of those things matter. You go back and look at tape, he has had key baskets, big baskets in fourth periods where we have gone to him and he has responded, maybe not late in games, but at points where games feel like they're still in the balance. He's come up with something that's usually driven by his athleticism and attack mode."

As with teammate Dario Saric, a native of Croatia, playing in an unfamiliar country with a different language presents a whole different set of problems than the ones presented on the court. But the easygoing Luwawu-Cabarrot, with an ever-present smile, has adjusted.

"Maybe I've improved a little quicker than I thought," he said. "I don't know. I don't think about the minutes that coach is going to give me. I just come to play basketball. Suddenly, you feel like you're only sleeping, playing and eating. And on the plane."

He is a flier, after all. His coach said so. And as long as Luwawu-Cabarrot keeps making that a part of his game, he could prove to be another piece moving forward.

cooneyb@phillynews.com

@BobCooney76

Blog: philly.com/Sixersblog