Sixers Notes: Leonard, Brown, Okafor, Stauskas

The Sixers “sniffed around” the idea of an offer sheet for Kawhi Leonard earlier this summer, sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who adds that the team was simply performing its due diligence. The same is true of the Sixers and Jimmy Butler, Lowe hears. Butler had reportedly been scheduled to meet with Philadelphia but put those plans aside while he considered an offer from the Bulls, with whom he eventually re-signed. Leonard re-signed with the Spurs. The primary focus of Lowe’s piece is on former No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett, whom the Sixers are apparently looking into adding. See more from Philly:

• Sixers coach Brett Brown reiterated Wednesday that he has no intention of getting out of his contract before it’s up at the end of the 2016/17 season and again indicated a lack of a desire to push the team for an extension, as Tom Moore of Calkins Media details.
• Brown also called the pairing of Nerlens Noel and No. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor “a tremendous challenge,” given their positional overlap, and said that while trade acquisition Nik Stauskas has plenty of potential, he “has a long ways to go,” as Moore notes in the same piece.
• The coach called the identity of the team’s starting point guard the “greatest mystery” for the Sixers, observes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The team signed Kendall Marshall to the largest free agent contract that it’s handed out during the tenure of GM Sam Hinkie, but his timetable for a return from injury is unclear.
• The Sixers may have less roster turnover than in the past two years, and Brown isn’t short on optimism, but the team still lacks the talent necessary to compete, argues John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News.