Korkmaz Spends Day with Sevens
With the Sixers not practicing the day following their narrow 105-104 loss to the Houston Rockets, Furkan Korkmaz spent Thursday shuttling along the I-95 corridor to Newark, Delaware and back. There, he worked out with the franchise’s NBA G League affiliate, the Delaware 87ers, in order to stay fresh.
Sevens General Manager Elton Brand watched Thursday’s practice, which was held at the University of Delaware’s athletics complex, site of the team’s training camp running through next week.
“Our goal is to help him grow as a player, not miss a beat,” Brand said Thursday. “He’s down with us for a reason, and that reason is to get better. We’re glad we have an opportunity to help him this early in his career.”
Since joining the Sixers, President of Basketball Operations Bryan Colangelo has used the Sevens as a resource to provide young prospects - Richaun Holmes and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot are two examples - with important live reps and game minutes that might not otherwise be available with the NBA club.
Korkmaz, perhaps, could be a candidate for such assignments, especially once the Sevens start play November 3rd.
“This setting is beneficial and valuable because we’re running the same plays as the Sixers,” said Brand.
He added jokingly, “We even have an accent like Coach [Brett Brown].”
Korkmaz has yet to appear in a regular season game for the Sixers. He averaged 4.8 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 11.9 minutes during the preseason.
Brown Doesn’t Think Sting Will Stick
Wednesday’s loss was a difficult one, for sure, but a few minutes after Eric Gordon beat the buzzer with an impressive, side-step 3-pointer from the sideline, Brett Brown expressed confidence that the Sixers will be ready to bounce back heading into a two-game trip to Texas.
“I think they’re going to be great,” Brown told reporters during his post-game press conference. “I think this group responds, I think this group wants to get better. They want to learn, they want to co-exist, they want to win.”
All four of the Sixers’ losses have come against opponents that qualified for the playoffs last season. With the exception of Saturday’s defeat at Toronto, which was sustained in the absence of Joel Embiid, the Sixers’ other three losses were each decided by 10 points or less.
“We’ll go back and look at what we saw, we’ll talk about it candidly, try to grow from this, and we will,” said Brown. “This type of loss is a ‘sting.’ This loss stings. I think that historically, most those guys in the room that we’ve been with, and now the new guys that we have, we’ll get through this, we’ll come out stronger, we’ll learn from it, and we’ll move on.”
What Matters to T.J. McConnell…
...should come as no surprise.
While the following quote was given by the resilient point guard about an hour before tip-off of a dramatic tilt that he nearly helped the Sixers win, it probably could be used to sum up the way he likely felt about his contributions after the fact.
In response to a question about how he judges his personal performances now that he’s assuming a reserve role, McConnell acknowledged his numbers might not be the same as last season. Nevertheless, what ultimately means the most to him on a night in, night out basis is how the Sixers fare collectively.
“Anybody that watches the game, and especially me playing it, you can feel when you play well and when you don’t,” McConnell said. “None of [the stats] matter if you win. If you win, it shouldn’t matter.”
A team-first answer from a team-first guy.