Brown filling his role with Sixers
Christopher A Vito
PHILADELPHIA – Kwame Brown knows his role: Rebound and play defense. He said that’s been his role since he was a kid. Getting drafted first overall didn’t change that.‘I’m from Georgia, man. You can’t get on the playground if you can’t play D,’ Brown said Wednesday, following the Sixers’ brief practice session at PCOM. ‘They […]
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Daily Local
PHILADELPHIA – Kwame Brown knows his role: Rebound and play defense. He said that’s been his role since he was a kid. Getting drafted first overall didn’t change that.

‘I’m from Georgia, man. You can’t get on the playground if you can’t play D,’ Brown said Wednesday, following the Sixers’ brief practice session at PCOM. ‘They would pick the scab. The old guys would come down and say, ‘Let’s pick the scab,’ and you’d be the guy they went at every play. That’s why you had to learn how to play defense.’

Brown surpassed Sixers coach Doug Collins’ expectations for the veteran big man the other night, when he logged season-bests in points, rebounds, field goals made, blocks and basically any stat that’s tracked by the league.

‘I can do a lot more,’ Brown said. ‘It’s just unfortunate I got injured (in preseason). I want to surprise (Collins) … with some of the things I can do when I’m healthy. But I don’t talk about it. I just go out and do it.’

More than anything, Brown’s performance Tuesday in the Sixers’ win over Dallas gave Collins piece of mind that waiting for the 12th-year center to get healthy has paid dividends.

Brown, who’s started six of the nine games in which he’s appeared, signed a two-year, $6 million free-agent contract with the Sixers in July. Coming off a pectoral muscle injury that facilitated Brown’s weight gain, he strained his left calf muscle in training camp while trying to get conditioned for the season.

More moments like Tuesday, in which Brown dominated the fourth quarter against the Mavericks with low-post defense and occasional offense sprinkled in, would go a long way toward helping the Sixers bridge the gap until Andrew Bynum can play, whenever that is.

‘There was a part of Kwame, too, when we signed Andrew Bynum where he was thinking, ‘Where do I fit now?” Collins said. ‘We talked to him about how important his role would be still. You think, ‘OK, it’s Andrew Bynum now. I was going to be the starting center. Now Andrew Bynum’s going to be getting 30, 32 minutes a night. Where do I fit?’ Probably human nature a bit there.

‘As time has gone on, he realizes how important he is to us. We’ve been incredibly patient to help him realize how important he is to us, and we’ve just got to keep him healthy because he can help us.’

Tuesday, Brown finished with six points, eight rebounds and a block in nearly 16 minutes. It wasn’t unsightly basketball, but it wasn’t pretty, either. How it looks is irrelevant. At least to Brown, it is.

Brown, the first overall selection in the 2001 draft by the Collins-coached Washington Wizards, is attempting to extend his career. He said he’s doing it by way of following his coach’s instruction.

‘When I go to a team and, every year, a different team and a different coach required me to do different things,’ said Brown, who spent last season with Golden State. ‘Paul Silas challenged me to shoot the ball (in 2010-11) in Charlotte, and I shot it and had a pretty good year. I got injured last year in Golden State. This year, Coach just told me to go out and if I have an open shot to take it. I’m going to go out when I feel confident enough in my calf and do it.’

Brown’s getting there. His play Tuesday reflected it.

l l l The Sixers are finally seeing the side of Maalik Wayns they expected out of preseason.

Wayns, who had 10 points in the 13 minutes off the bench Tuesday, has earned Collins’ trust. Conversely, Collins said he thinks the rookie’s lack of production early on had something to do with the head contusion he picked up in an Oct. 22 exhibition.

‘I think it took (Wayns) longer to recover from hitting his head and getting that concussion,’ Collins said. ‘I don’t think he was himself for two weeks. We didn’t say anything, he didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have his bounce or that juice. I’m starting to see it back, and I think that was related to when he fell and hit his head.’

Through his first six appearances, Wayns shot 1-for-10 overall, 0-for-2 from 3-point range, averaging less than a point in 4.6 minutes. In his last two, the Villanova product is 5-for-15, 3-for-6 from long range, with averages of 8.5 points and 10 minutes per game.

l l l Whatever compelled Evan Turner to grow a beard has left his system. Turner left practice Wednesday convinced he was getting it cut.

‘I only started growing facial hair a year ago,’ the usually fresh-faced Turner said. ‘It’s going. I’m done with it.’

After Tuesday’s game, in which he scored 22 points on 8-for-12 shooting, maybe Turner should reconsider.

Visit Christopher A. Vito’s Sixers blog at delcotimes.com for more coverage.