Sixers' Brown hopes McDaniels emulates Spurs' Bowen

LIKE MANY basketball fans his age, 76ers rookie K.J. McDaniels grew up watching the San Antonio Spurs flirt with dominance in the NBA year in and year out. The 21-year-old admired the obvious stars, such as David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. He probably focused a little less on the team's defensive stopper and surely never paid much attention to the wild-eyed, hyper assistant coach.

But Bruce Bowen and Brett Brown probably will figure prominently in the career of Daniels, whom the Sixers selected in June with the 32nd overall pick. Brown, of course, will oversee the progress of the 6-6 swingman and the model he will often refer to is his former pupil, Bowen.

Bowen was 30 when he joined the Spurs in 2001-02 after stints in Miami, Boston and Philadelphia. He was pretty much a nondescript role player, better known for his defense than anything else. San Antonio turned out to be a perfect fit, and vice-versa. Bowen remained a defensive stopper, but also was an offensive threat from the three-point line, the key standstill shooter on a team that had a phenomenal inside game with Robinson and Duncan.

"We ended up getting him in San Antonio sold on the ability to make threes, because we had such a great interior presence with those two Hall of Fame bigs, and he could guard," Brown said of Bowen. "He used to be a scorer and had that mentality, and he grew to understand that if he was going to stay in the league as long as he did, that was where he had to have his bread buttered. He was smart to focus on one thing [defense] and be all-league at it multiple years in a row."

McDaniels has shown he is very intriguing defensively. The ACC defensive player of the year at Clemson last season, McDaniels has great athleticism and has great anticipation in coming off his man to block shots. If he is to be Bowen-like, the jumper will have to improve.

"Just being more consistent with it, having confidence and getting it off quicker," McDainiels said, discussing how his jumper needs to get better. "I'm improving, just trying to work hard at it."

This season's theme for Brown's team is development. Michael Carter-Williams eventually will look to build on his Rookie of the Year campaign, once his surgically repaired shoulder is healed, and Nerlens Noel appears ready to make strides in his first pro season on the floor, all while rookie Joel Embiid recovers from a broken foot. Those three will be the main focus of the development project. Like Bowen, McDaniels eventually could be a valuable part of the culture Brown and the organization are looking to build.

"Just inherent athleticism, and physically gifted," is how Brown describe McDaniels. "I don't think he positionally is right a lot of times, and it's just from being young. We can help him get better there. A lot of times, he is not understanding who he is guarding. We can help him there. I think a lot of times he's not understanding a rotation out of a pick and roll or what we're doing out of the post. We can help him. Right now, he's just getting it done, because he's a defensive-minded player. He was the defensive player of the year in a great college conference for a reason. He's going to get better and better and better as he becomes studied and polished. It's the same thing with Bruce that amazed me. He was so anal in regards to studying game plans and studying opponents and studying opponents' tendencies. That's just part of K.J.'s evolution."

Nerlens Noel missed practice yesterday with flu-like symptoms. Brett Brown said Noel started feeling poorly during the team's game against New York on Tuesday. Noel said after practice he hopes to play tonight when the team hosts the Boston Celtics . . . Hollis Thompson was back at practice yesterday after missing several days with a corneal abrasion. He said that he had to wear a patch for a few days and that his vision remains a little blurry, but hopes to play tonight . . . Ronald Roberts missed practice again with a strained quadriceps.

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