How Sixers will ramp up Simmons, other key players for restart – NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers have transitioned into the next phase of their stay at Disney World.
After an initial mandatory quarantine period, players have been cleared to leave their rooms. The teams practice Saturday afternoon was its first since March 10. Back then, reporters stood behind a table at the teams practice facility in Camden, New Jersey, and spoke to players from a distance. Saturday, the dialogue was through Zoom.
There are a lot of new protocols for everyone to get used to, but Brett Brown was glad to have his team together again.
To see our team and everybodys got their sort of elbow bumps going down the aisle of the bus, and to see the team again under one bus roof, its fantastic, he said. 
Brown is adapting to the new conditions and still determining exactly how hell coach his team during this period. He did, however, have a firm answer on how often he plans to play Ben Simmons as the Sixers ramp back up. Simmons had missed the teams final eight games before the season was suspended with a nerve impingement in his lower back, but he said on July 2 that hes feeling healthy and has added muscle. 
I think in general when you look at the scrimmage situations, youre going to see something thats quite frugal, Brown said. I believe when it gets into the regular-season games, youre going to see normal numbers that Ive played him. And so that answer isnt delivered because of anything to do with health. Its delivered just because I think thats the way that I want to do it, and the way that I will do it with (Joel Embiid) and Tobias (Harris), as examples, because of their stature more than anything to do with health.
Embiid had been sidelined for five games in late February and early March with a left shoulder sprain. Harris has more minutes than any NBA player this season and played through a right knee issue earlier in the year.
The Sixers are set to have scrimmages on July 24, July 26 and July 28, and to resume play on Aug. 1 against the Indiana Pacers. 
Nobody in the NBA has experienced anything like this situation before, which Brown acknowledged. Hes in a position of attempting to find and capitalize on opportunities for normalcy while also making the best of the circumstances, with many restrictions in place. 
This thing is fluid, Brown said, but I believe it will be normal in relation to no mask and me being able to look at Ben and Jo and talk to them (at practice), Brown said. Personally, I feel like its not normal. Youre going to have to feel different things through of how you deliver a message and how you coach a team again, and Im excited to be able to do that.
An open mind about concerns 
Harris outlook is an important one for the Sixers. Hes clearly viewed as a leader, someone his teammates respect and have talked to often while play has been suspended.  
In his first meeting with local reporters since before the hiatus, he gave his thoughts on players who have expressed their opinions on the league resuming, ranging from disagreement to doubt to hesitation. Joel Embiid said he hated the idea, while Shake Milton said he doesn’t think the NBA should be playing.
Just try to understand their perspective, just to hear them out with an open mind, Harris said. Everybody takes this in a different way. You can look at it in many different facets, with whats going on in the world, whether coming out here is safe or not as safe for some guys. Guys leaving family, guys being free agents. So everybody has a little bit of doubt in their mind with everything. 
Just hear them out, understand them. Try to do our best with it. So I think thats the best thing we can do. But everybodys going to have their own type of inner feelings about it, and thats not to say that mine is right or theirs is right so just hearing them out.
The Bobi and Tobi Show? 
As the Sixers acclimate to the Disney environment, Harris has already received a visit from a familiar face. He had a fun exchange Friday with Boban Marjanovic, and there might be more Bobi and Tobi antics to come.
Obviously its always good to be around Bobi and see him as you saw yesterday, him in front of my hotel room, Harris said. Its always light-hearted, its a fun thing. I definitely look forward to catching up with him while Im out here. Theres some things in the works.
At some point, perhaps a month or two down the line, this new routine might become comfortable for Harris and the Sixers. But it understandably sounds like thats going to take a while. 
“Obviously theres so much involved in it, from food to sleep to making sure were stretching right, Glenn Robinson III said. It kind of feels like a summer camp with everything going on. Its easy to get distracted or caught up in everything, but our eyes are just on practice, getting better and just making sure that were good, as far as the team.
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