To begin an NBA season, every team wants to go deep into their bench to see who will be in the rotation for the long haul. It is not abnormal to see a team play nine or 10 guys before it shortens when the playoffs roll around.
It will be the same for the Philadelphia 76ers as coach Doc Rivers will throw out an all-bench lineup as he did in the preseason opener against the Boston Celtics. In the past, that would spell doom for Philadelphia as they have not been able to survive for long stretches without Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, but Rivers wants to change that.
“It’s going to happen,” he explained. “There’s going to be times where one guy’s in foul trouble, the other guy needs to come out so I don’t need this team to be dependent on those two guys to be on the floor. We have to be able to play when both are off the floor, that’s going to happen that’s real. So we have to work on it every day and we do it in practice, quite a bit, and we’ll do it in the game early on for sure.”
Rivers then went on to explain who he wants to count on off his bench. He said he has four guys right now–presumably Shake Milton, Dwight Howard, Furkan Korkmaz, and Matisse Thybulle–but the last spot is up for grabs.
“I have a good sense,” the coach added. “I don’t know if I have a clear sense yet but, at least four for sure. I can tell you that in my mind, but I’m just looking for them to play well and play together, and play their own way when all five on the floor.”
It will be more on Milton and Korkmaz to get the team running on offense. While the Sixers will be relying on Milton to be the point guard and Howard will be a guy who will have a role, Korkmaz will be counted to perform some responsibilities as well.
“We’re going to try to probably run a lot of different lineups,” said Korkmaz. “Right now with the second unit, we are running a kind of playmaker position with Shake and me. I think we’re going to make a lot of plays together and I think we can have a lot of fun with the second unit.”
Friday’s preseason finale with the Indiana Pacers will be the final chance for players to earn that 10th spot in the rotation in order to see regular playing time.
“Shooting is important, defense is important, who can get the team and run the stuff the best,” Rivers added. “There’s a lot of little things. We may need more size so we’ll see. We run out a lot of groups in practice so we kind of get a judge from that. Tomorrow, we’ll try to run a lot of different groups out with that group.”
At the end of the day, the bench unit is going to have to play their own way. Led by guys like Milton and Howard, they will have to figure out their own style and try to get it done in a productive way to allow the stars to get their rest. The Sixers cannot count on Simmons and Embiid to play 48 minutes.
“They’re not going to be able to play the way Joel and Ben and that group plays because they don’t have a Joel or Ben on their team,” Rivers finished. “So they have to play a little different and then they have to figure out what that identity looks like.” [lawrence-related id=40311,40299,40293]