CAMDEN, N.J. — The new day in Sixers basketball Tuesday looked a lot like the old days. A lot of energy, a ton of confidence and lofty expectations.
There was the always quotable Kelly Oubre Jr. ripping the elitists hyping the Big 3 of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. To Oubre, the Sixers are anything but a three-man team.
“They have big names, they’re all All-Stars and things like that,” the newly re-signed Oubre said. “But I think we’ve got like a Big 12, a Big 15. I don’t do a Big 3 because you excluded me, and I don’t like it. At the end of the day, it’s about how we all mesh together. But the sky is the limit for us. The sky is the limit. We have to attack from all angles.”
There was wing man Caleb Martin thankful for landing on his feet after a lot of drama in Miami, where the Heat have enjoyed considerable success in the playoffs. Martin settled for a below-market, four-year, $32 million deal because they wanted him to opt in to the final year of his deal before adding on five years for $65 million.,
The 6-foot-5 Martin is a rare get for a Sixers team that hasn’t had a legit defensive stopper for years. He literally can shut down point guards to pivots.
“They’re putting a great team together,” Martin said of the Sixers. “They’ve got a lot of guys with a lot of talent so I think this will elevate my game in kind of a personal way. And as a team I feel like we can do something special.”
And there was Andre Drummond, the 6-11 center who battled Embiid for so many years, not only back in the fold, but determined to give the Sixers the steady rebounding they have so lacked. They were teammates for 49 games during the post-Covid 2021-22 season. But Sixers basketball operations chief Daryl Morey dealt Drummond and Ben Simmons to Brooklyn in a package deal for James Harden. During free agency, Drummond said Embiid gave him a personal sales pitch to seal the deal.
“It’s like full circle,” Drummond said. “The teetering between the trade deadline and finally coming back here. To have the opportunity to be back here again and play in front of these fans I’m forever grateful and excited. It feels like home. I’m excited to be here and try again and be here for the entire journey. I look forward to what’s to come. We had a great core group here. We’ve still got some guys left here from when I was here and I’m excited to see those guys again.”
It’s all talk, obviously, and as such easy for the newcomers to believe this Sixers team can put it all together and reach the NBA finals for the first time since Allen Iverson stepped over Tyronn Lue after making a jump shot against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2001 championship series.
Introductory news conferences are about optimism, and there was no shortage of that starting with Oubre. The 6-5 guard has only scratched the surface of an offensive niche coach Nick Nurse and his staff have spent considerable time plotting with the research and development department. Oubre averaged 15.4 points and 5.0 rebounds before the numbers tailed off to 13.4 points and 4.0 boards in the playoffs last season.
“You always need like, two or three years to win everybody over a little bit, or allow them, to see who you are,” Oubre said. “But in my first year it happened really fast. I think that this is the place to get me back to where I know that I need to be.”
Additionally, Oubre says he’s studied George’s game and has “been a fan from afar.” They’ve also had their battles.
“I’m really excited to learn from him, to just help him do his thing with the rest of his career he has left,” Oubre said. “Obviously everybody wants to talk about a beef or whatever. There’s never been a beef. It’s just been two competitors who respect each other on the court and we just try to go at it really hard. Now that we’re on the same team, we can do that to other people. So, I’m excited.”
The Sixers have another interesting piece in veteran guard Alex Gordon, who signed for the minimum just in case Kyle Lowry doesn’t return. All of the acquisitions are workers. You won’t find one of the new guys taking days off like say, Simmons would do when he felt unappreciated. No, these are guys that want to be here, and that’s always a good thing.
Can they play together? Drummond certainly thinks so. And he has it on good authority from Embiid.
“The moment he found out there was a possibility I was going to come here he called me immediately,” Drummond said. “I respected that, and I loved that the most. He face-timed me and he was like, ‘Bro, are we doing this? What’s happening?’ His excitement overall was truly the pushing factor of me coming here.”
Contact Bob Grotz at rgrotz@delcotimes.com
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