ORLANDO — Before Joel Embiid returned for the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday, they needed others to step up to fill the rather large void the big fella leaves when he isn’t out there.
The Sixers went 3-1 in the four games he missed. While most of the credit goes to Shake Milton, some also needs to go to Paul Reed.
While Montrezl Harrell received the starts when Embiid was out, Reed averaged 25.6 minutes per game. The energetic big man out of DePaul averaged 10.8 points, 9.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.8 blocks in those games. He shot 73.1% from the floor.
“He’s been great,” coach Doc Rivers said on Sunday in Orlando. “He rebounds, he plays hard, he’s a ball finder meaning if the ball’s on the floor and Paul Reed’s around, there’s a very good chance he’s gonna get it. It would liken him to a guy who picks up fumbles all the time. Paul Reed always gets them and that’s been great for us.”
A big reason for Reed’s improvement on the offensive end has been his continued understanding of rolling off the screen. His growth in knowing where he has to be on the offensive end and knowing where defenders are going to be has been a big improvement for him and it has helped him mightily.
“Offensively, he’s slashing to the ball now, our guys are trusting, giving him the ball, dribble handoff stuff that we’re doing, he’s making solid plays there,” Rivers continued. “So he’s been great. Trez has been great as well and this is why we needed, I guess, multiple bigs.”
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