After wrapping up their preseason last Friday and hosting an intersquad scrimmage for fans on Sunday, the Sixers returned to practice on Monday.

With the season opener just days away, the team has shifted their focus to the Milwaukee Bucks. Since their name is the Philadelphia 76ers, most of the media availability after practice was spent discussing the health of the various busted players on the roster. So here are some lessons from practice ahead of the start of the season.

Injuries and the new normal

The first order of business for Nick Nurse was to give an update on who was and wasn’t practicing, and that answer was basically everyone except Paul George. Joel Embiid and Jared McCain were partial participants in today’s workout, while Tyrese Maxey was a full participant.

The nurse said Embiid again did not participate in 5-on-5 scrimmaging, and indicated McCain did not either.

The Embiid part set things up a bit as the big guy has yet to fight this preseason, and Nurse explained that this just seems to be the way they’ll manage Embiid, at least for now.

“He’s going to be very limited in things like that, it’s the new normal,” Nurse said. “He’s moving pretty well, he’s getting a lot of work in. He’s there… 60, 70 percent of the team training, until we get to the real physical stuff.”

He ended by saying that things like that will come soon, but they don’t want to “overdo it this early in the year.”

So not only will Embiid not have a preseason to adjust to the new team, he also won’t have played any kind of 5-of-5 with them in practice. That’s how much he and the team seem to be prioritizing keeping him healthy this year.

Staying confident and ready for whatever…

…though no one could accuse Kelly Oubre Jr. of missing any of those things. Oubre was asked if he wasn’t getting a chance to play or practice as a full team yet, but he didn’t seem too concerned.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a next-man-up mentality, but when we see who steps on the field on Wednesday, we’ve got to go out there and do what we can,” Oubre said.

He also made sure to point out that the team has still been together a lot.

“Everyone is here and present, everyone is very loud and everyone is part of the team,” he said, “so I don’t feel like we’re missing any pieces, but we just have to go out there and be ready for whatever also and do our best, play hard.”

Tyrese Maxey is learning from playing without Embiid

If the season opener is any indication, the Sixers will have plenty of games this year with guys in and out of the lineup, and likely the guys in and out will be some of the stars.

This will put much of the regular season workload on Tyrese Maxey, who will be given new exemptions to carry that workload after making the jump to an All-Star last season.

Maxey is confident he will be able to do that, building on his experiences last year leading the team when Embiid was absent for much of the second half of the season.

“It really helped me grow my game and my mind,” he said. “I have seen many different reports. Teams try to do a lot of different things to score my success and die. So I had to find ways around that, to get my teammates involved.

It’s not just the production he’s expected to pick up. “Vocal leader” is a role Maxey has felt his entire life. Now that he’s already a Sixer, he feels like he’s been able to establish himself as a Sixer for this franchise.

“Guys see the work I put in, and guys see how much I care about winning. They respect it,” Maxey said. “I have a voice that I use a lot. I try to use as much as possible. Because I want to win. I want to bring guys.”