The Philadelphia 76ers have missed the playoffs for their last three NBA seasons, and last season they went 18-64. You would need to go back to their 1972-1973 to find a worse record. So, it is no secret that the 76ers are in a precarious situation, one that perhaps even No. 3 draft pick Jahlil Okafor cannot fix.
Head coach Brett Brown is looking to make a couple of key hires this offseason, and he started those today with his addition of Dr. David T. Martin as the director of performance research and development.
Brown is a known sports science geek, and his time coaching in Australia most likely put him into contact with Martin, who was at the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) before being hired by the 76ers.
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Martin held a senior sports science position at the AIS, and primarily worked with cyclists. During his tenure in Australia, Martin oversaw eight gold medals, eight silver medals and twelve bronze medals.
He is well known for revolutionizing the way that SRM power meters are used in cycling, and has done quite a bit of work in measuring how power data affects a cyclist’s performance. He uses the SRM’s to measure how an athlete is taking the training load, and what physical traits need to be developed further.
Martin is also fascinated with the “Anaerobic Threshold,” studying in graduate school how athletes can push themselves to achieve optimal speed, strength and power.
Judging from his past history with power meters, 76ers players should be expecting heavy use of wearables, like what the U.S. women’s national team are currently using. They may also face some very strenuous training sessions, in order to push them past their boundaries, like he oversaw with Australian cycling.
The 76ers will be hoping that this hire, an upcoming assistant coaching hire and a $75 million practice facility will be enough to break them out of this slump.
Maybe they can even get Okafor a little bit more excited.