Paradise Island, The Bahamas - Tyrese Maxey made sure to wait for Joel Embiid before leaving the converted practice facility on Thursday afternoon.
It didn't matter how long Embiid took to answer questions from the flock of reporters at the day's training camp session.
"It's going to be tough. They know that if they have to punch me and slap me, take my stuff away for me not to get on that court, they're going to have to do it," Embiid said of how he'll balance managing his body with being a competitor.
Oh yeah, that's me, that's my job," Maxey interrupted.
"I might get mad, I might curse people out. But, I think it's a relationship. We've been working together for years now," Embiid said.
Embiid is participating in drills but has yet to actually play in the scrimmage portion of the Sixers' daily training camp sessions.
His daily goal is "slowly building back up" from last season's knee injury. It's a matter of him taking his time until he's ready to play.
"Even going back to when we signed that last extension, they made sure to let me know that they had my back and they understand me. They know me. I’ve already accomplished a lot of things and there’s one thing missing. They just know that that’s all I care about. Yeah, I think taking my time, not pushing when you don’t have to," Embiid explained.
"But, then again, I also let them know I’m a competitor. I’m going to want to go out there and play. So, I got to make sure they got to make those decisions and save me from myself. But, I mean, going into this season is all about taking it slow, playing whenever I’m ready."
The Sixers are going to rely on Maxey to embody the necessary mentality to take more of the reins on offense this season. Partly because he's good enough. But, partly because Embiid realizes that the best thing for him is to not push so hard in the regular season.
"I think it more starts with probably a mindset Joel is talking about. You guys heard me talk about it all last year. I'm going to continue to push Tyrese to be aggressive, count shots, give him goals to get to keep raising those up. I think Joel can help with that for sure," Nick Nurse said on Thursday.
"I mean, I would expect that we have a lot more variety in what we can do offensively, so you'll see more. I think we're always going to go to some really good places. But, when you have more choices, a bigger menu, you're going to have different variety." Nurse creates that variety over time. This team is a slow-cooked meal, not a pre-made entree you throw in the microwave for two minutes.
Nurse doesn't view training camp as an environment for programming players with certain roles. He reiterated on Thursday a similar message to what he said on Wednesday: "So, just gathering data right now, really."
The Sixers are not concerned with implementing plays or schemes just yet. The goal of camp is to find information from the randomness of open play.
"We do a lot of stuff that, as you would probably expect in training camp, is just kind of open play, right? It's not five-on-five, it's four-on-four, it's three-on-three or whatever. So, you're seeing lots of different stuff that isn't like, 'OK, we got five guys out there, there's got to be somebody in each of those five spots'. You're seeing a lot of randomness and stuff like that," Nurse explained.
"That's where it starts, just getting information. I mean, when we do get to some five-on-zero stuff, a lot of mixing and matching. We run it, we run a thing and three guys sub in, two guys stay. Two guys sub in, three guys stay. And all of a sudden, you're looking at lineups that look maybe a little funky.
"But, we let it roll just because, I don't know, you never know what it could do or that you end up that way sometimes and just getting guys comfortable to not, like, 'I stand here my whole life on this play'. Maybe you don't, maybe we're small, maybe we're big, maybe whatever and you have to shift out."
As for Thursday's session, Caleb Martin offered a hint at what took place within the walls of the ballroom.
"More execution. We worked on a lot of execution on the defensive end. Just kind of being in our spots and having guys help and pay attention to detail of calling around on all the angles on the defensive end. So, big defensive day," Martin said.
Tyrese Maxey has a promising post-playing career lined up. pic.twitter.com/byptFZlUnX In most important news, Joel Embiid has made the switch from black Ugg slippers to tan Ugg slippers: pic.twitter.com/UlKlBNci5m
Not that we're in the business of managing Embiid's money, but he certainly will pay for comfort:
