The Philadelphia 76ers tried something a little different in Monday’s 117-111 road win over the Brooklyn Nets and that was to have Raul Neto play next to Ben Simmons and have him wreak havoc.
Simmons received all of the glory, and rightfully so after a masterful performance, but Neto should receive some praise too. He ran the offense with precision off the bench and only had one turnover with his four assists while knocking down a shot from deep.
“One of the reasons why they brought me here was they wanted me to hit those open shots so I just try to shoot it with confidence,” said Neto. “Just being smart and being in the right space at the right time, I think will get me open shots or it would get somebody else open shots too.”
The focus of the Neto and Simmons lineup was the ability of the two players to run the pick-and-roll. Neto is more of a pass-first point guard so he is able to find with Simmons with pocket passes with him as a roller or he can throw lobs up to the rim and Simmons can go get it.
“It was good, he made it easier,” said Neto of the time with Simmons. “He’s so good on the pick-and-roll, he’s setting the screen and just rolling so I think for me it was just easy to make a choice. It was either me shooting a floater or he’s open on the roll. It was one of the first times I’ve played with him with that many minutes so I think it was good.”
The Sixers will still alternate the backup point guard role between Neto and Trey Burke as well as Josh Richardson getting a look, but as long as Neto is continuing to understand his role on this team, they will be able to make it work. [lawrence-related id=23985,23978,23967]