76ers to Reopen New Jersey Practice Facility on Wednesday for Voluntary Workouts

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The Philadelphia 76ers announced they will open their practice facility in Camden, New Jersey on Wednesday. 

It will be a "phased reopening for voluntary, individual workouts" with players and essential staff adhering to "strict safeguards in accordance with NBA guidelines."

Marc Stein of the New York Times noted that Tuesday's news brings the league tally of opened practice facilities to 22 teams, with the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors the remaining teams yet to reopen their facilities.

When or if the NBA does return, the Sixers will return to being one of the most intriguing, and potentially confounding, teams in the NBA. 

The Sixers went all-in on size and defense this offseason, re-signing Tobias Harris, signing center Al Horford and acquiring Josh Richardson in the sign-and-trade that landed Jimmy Butler in Miami. While the NBA has continued going smaller over the years, the Sixers zagged against that trend.

The results have been mixed. 

While the defense has been excellent, the offense has suffered from a lack of floor-spacing or off-the-dribble creation, clogging the lane for Joel Embiid and not providing him a pick-and-roll partner like the one he had in Butler. That even led to the team experimenting with Horford coming off the bench, hardly what a team would want from an expensive free-agent addition.

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Thus, a team with title aspirations coming into the season has gone just 39-26 and currently sits at sixth in the Eastern Conference. 

At times, however, they appear to be a legitimate contender. They are virtually unbeatable at home, where they've gone 29-2. And against the NBA's top five teams—the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers and Boston Celtics—they've gone a respectable 7-7. 

Given the hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team is also expected to have Ben Simmons available to play whenever the season resumes. He was dealing with nerve impingement in his lower back before the season was suspended.