Brett Brown Hints at Simmons Being Around Team Practices More

Brett Brown recently told the media that they should expect injured Philadelphia 76ers top overall draft pick Ben Simmons to be around the team more.

While the recovery of rookie top overall draft pick Ben Simmons has largely been a mystery to Philadelphia 76ers fans, it looks as if that mystery is coming to a close.

The Sixers have long maintained in this era of the Sixers franchise a rapport of being a bit secretive with injury recovery. When Joel Embiid was out with injury recovering for two years straight, at times it seemed like they were keeping Embiid locked up in a dungeon somewhere while they worked on getting him ready to play in the NBA.

With Ben Simmons, they haven’t been quite as secretive, but they’ve kept him from speaking to the media and kept him away from appearing in most games (although he is making more and more appearances as of late). The secretiveness surrounding Simmons seems to be coming to a close.

Brown let the media know after Monday’s practice that fans should expect to see Simmons “integrated” with the team more from here on out.

#Sixers Brown: 'You're going to see (Ben Simmons) integrated with us more and more.'

— Tom Moore (@tmoore76ers) January 2, 2017

Brown also talked a bit about Simmons and his recovery up to this point, something that really wasn’t discussed much prior to now. According to Brian Seltzer, the Sixers have focused on three main areas with Simmons while he has been going through his recovery.

Those three areas are the weight room, his shooting form, and classroom work.

This is great to hear, because that’s a lot of what the Sixers focused on with Embiid while he was out, and he has come in and showed out in a huge way during his “rookie” season.

While some fans have been a bit worried about how Simmons recovery has gone, the Sixers outright announcing that he will be with the team more from now on is proof that he has progressed in huge ways. Although the team still has yet to give any timetable for his return, we should look to see him make some public strides from here on out regrading his recovery, and should also expect to see him return to the court in real game action some time in February.