By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)
Brett Brown was going through the media car wash Thursday to promote a coaching clinic he’s running at Lower Merion High School on September 16th. Two of the interviews took place with KYW Newsradio’s Matt Leon and Anthony Gargano on 97.5 The Fanatic. I would encourage you to give both of those a listen, but I’ve taken the liberty to pull out some of the more interesting tidbits regarding this year’s Sixers squad.
On Jahlil Okafor:
The Sixers are making no bones about it; the team will run a Jahlil Okafor-centric offense, feeding him in the post and surrounding him with outside shooting. On both interviews, Brown discussed that exact theme.
“I think that he does possess legitimate what we call NBA skill in that he is a very skilled low post player. When you surround him with like Stauskas and the emergence of Robert Covington, now Isaiah Canaan will have an opportunity to come in right from the start of the year and try to carve out some playing time. I think the shooters that you have in Hollis Thompson and even Pierre Jackson and Scottie Wilbekin, you’re starting to roll out players that can complement Jahlil.”
“With Jahlil, you get a legitimate post target and the need for shooting becomes even more ever present. And my life back with Duncan helped sort of see it in that light…He’s one of the rare people that can command a double-team, there aren’t many of those, it’s sort of a dying breed.”
On Nik Stauskas:
Stauskas played a bit of point guard back at Michigan, and with the Sixers’ current uncertainty at that position, many fans wondered whether the team’s recent acquisition would see any time there. While Brown didn’t say that exactly, he does expect Stauskas to do a lot with the ball in his hands.
“I see him having the ability to do more than that [shoot]…Years ago, when we coached Manu Ginobili, he was a shooter, but he could also do some stuff out of pick and rolls, do some stuff in an open court sense with live balls. I think that Nik is more than just a shooter…I think that his future development is going to be to put the ball on the floor as a combo-type guard.”
On Dario Saric:
Brett spent 10 days this summer with Dario in Istanbul and had a lot of good things to say about the Croatian forward, including calling Saric’s no-look pass to Bogdanovic this week, ‘NBA elite’.
“He’s a big Magic Johnson-type wannabe, a Lamar Odom-type wannabe, or Boris Diaw. He’s just a big man that can play.”
When Gargano tried to lead into a Toni Kukoc comparison, Brown didn’t quite go with it, saying this:
“Dario is probably more of a bull in a china shop, knock your head off, run through people kind of guy.”
So Jahlil Okafor is Tim Duncan, Nik Stauskas is Manu Ginobili, and Dario Saric is Boris Diaw. Sounds pretty good to me; I think Sixers fans will take anything approaching that Spurs dynasty.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
