The Philadelphia 76ers have a few options they can go to in terms of who is the backup point guard to Ben Simmons on a nightly basis. Coach Brett Brown can turn to Josh Richardson and have him slide over and handle the ball or he can turn to a few point guard pickups.
The Sixers picked up Raul Neto and Trey Burke in free agency in order to backup Simmons and Brown has alternated between the two for stretches. For a few weeks, Neto was the main option off the bench as he averaged 21.2 minutes in six games from November 4 through November 13 earning two starts when Simmons went down with an injury. Then, Burke took his turn averaging 17 minutes in four games from November 17-23.
Recently, Brown has gone back to Neto as he played the bulk of the backup minutes against the Toronto Raptors and the Sacramento Kings over the previous two games while Burke did not play at all. Brown explained his decision making saying:
Some of it’s gut feel, some of it’s the notion that I don’t want one of my players to rot. I want to keep them alive, some of it for sure is matchups. I’d say if you had to weight what I just said it would be tilted more towards like ‘how are we going to win?’ Like where are we best suited to win? It’s judged on all of those types of things.
Burke is averaging 6.3 points and 3.3 assists and Neto is averaging 4.1 points and 1.6 assists so far on the season. Burke is more of a natural scorer while Neto is more of a pass-first type of point guard who will distribute and run the offense first before looking for his own offense.
One of Brown’s favorite phrases is “the gym will speak” meaning whatever is happening in the game will decide who he turns to. If the team needs a spark and needs some instant scoring, Burke might be the option. If they need to be calmed down as well as somebody who can knock down shots, then Neto will get a look. It’s all based on those types of natural basketball things. [lawrence-related id=20193,20185,20173]