Brown eager to get Noel and Embiid on court together

BRETT BROWN spent much of his first season as the 76ers' head coach tutoring his prized, but injured, rookie.

His sessions with Nerlens Noel took place for all to see, on the court hours before a game, the two working on the big man's shooting form. They worked before and after practices, in which Noel did not participate while recovering from knee surgery. All the while, the coach was envisioning Noel becoming a better shooter, more fluid at the foul line.

Now, Brown looks at Noel in a completely different way. Yes, he still oversees the effort to correct the form of his shooting. But when he looks at the 6-11, 215-pounder now, one thought clearly enters the mind of the coach each and every time. That thought is Joel Embiid.

Like Noel, Embiid is out with an injury during his rookie campaign, most likely sitting out the full season while recovering from a fractured right foot. In the meantime, Brown is consumed with thoughts of Embiid and Noel playing together.

"All the time. All the time. All the time," Brown said when asked if coaches Noel with Embiid in mind. "For sure we do. It would be kind of naive to not try to pair them up and figure out how they coexist and what it means to their respective games. Nerlens is the one that is going to have to adjust. I'm not going to make Joel a power forward. Nerlens has the chance to do that. They most definitely can coexist. That's the most asked question, 'How can they play together?' Quite possibly, maybe the answer is, 'Just fine.' "

Some of that comes out of sheer hope, but a lot of it has to do with what Noel has shown Brown and his staff this season. The play, no doubt, has been inconsistent. But when you look at these Sixers individually, you have to look at the future, not the now. And what Noel has shown certainly intrigues the coach.

"Lets just start with defense, because at the end of the day that's who he is," said Brown. "I have learned this year that he's more gifted, in his first year, with off-the-ball defense than on the ball defense. As we grow him and he grows himself, it's going to have to be both. Off the ball, where he can roam free and just seek blocked shots freely, he's elite. Sometimes, because I'm watching Luc Mbah a Moute guard Al Jefferson, it just frees up Nerlens. He can just go make plays, at times leave his man.

"When he's playing a stretch-four, it's a little more difficult because he's coming from the outside all the way to the rim. But if he's covering a more traditional power forward, someone near the rim or not too far out, he covers ground. Off the ball, in his first year, he's elite. The NBA stats will confirm that rim protection. But that's off the ball. On the ball, he's 215 pounds and he's guarding centers or even 'four' men that have 20 or 30 pounds more on him. We have to teach him technique of the NBA where he's using arm bars [forearm on opponent]. We have to teach him to better front to get him out of those weight problems [getting backed down]."

Noel has been a big reason the team is No. 12 in overall defense. The coach and staff have instilled in him that his job is year-round.

"I just want to continue to progress in certain ways and sustain energy and just play the way that I know I can play," Noel said. "I think that I've been doing better with being more consistent."

At 20, he is still just a kid. His game suffers when he gets too amped, such as last week while playing in Boston, near his hometown of Malden, Mass. There are times of hesitance, a bit of laziness and awkward offensive play. But the imagination, especially that of the coach, can run wild due to his athleticism, and the fact that he is going to be paired with the 7-foot, 260-pounder.

"Defensively in a halfcourt game, that's what I see, where he's better and where he needs work," said Brown. "There's another layer that's challenging for him when he starts playing the 'four' spot that I saw when I played him with Henry [Sims] or [at some point with Embiid]. He's so used to running at the rim when he gets back on defense to find the other team's center. But when he's covering a stretch-four, he doesn't realize that he's out on the wing, so it's foreign to him in transition defense and it's a different world because he never did that in AAU or at Kentucky. Defensively, good and bad, we have to grow him.

"Offensively, everybody talks, and fair enough, if he can shoot from 18 feet. I don't see that as much of a mandatory need as others do. I think of him running, his playing fearless on going to get offensive rebounds and being the king of junk. Anything that's energy, wild, reckless, kamikaze energy, offensively is going to suit him more than him being an outside shooter. Which may or may never come. We're going to continue to work on it."

Brown and Noel will continue to work, with Embiid always on the coach's mind.