The Philadelphia 76ers will have to keep trusting the healing process as well.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, Sixers head coach Brett Brown was asked if frontcourt duo Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons would be able to start the season without a minutes restriction.
“I think it’s ambitious,” Brown replied, according to Marshall Harris of CSN Philly. “We’ve all been around NBA basketball for a while now. I think that if that could happen, you know, that’s amazing. I think to set our sights on that being a reality is very ambitious.
“It’s very ambitious, and so be it,” he continued. “It doesn’t alter at all the plan, the path, the purpose of what we’re still trying to grow the program around. But I think on first, like gut feel, glance, it’s ambitious.”
Embiid spent his entire rookie campaign last season on a gradually-increasing minutes restriction but still lasted for just 31 games before going down with a season-ending meniscus tear. Meanwhile, Simmons broke his foot before the season and didn’t play in a single game. Health has been the one major pitfall preventing the Sixers’ Process from coming to full fruition, so even if Brown has big plans for both players, caution is still the name of the game here.
