PHILADELPHIA — New Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse is known for his experiments on the floor. He is almost like a mad scientist looking to see what works and what doesn’t to help lead his teams to wins.
In Friday’s preseason finale win over the Atlanta Hawks, Nurse briefly went to a Joel Embiid-Paul Reed combination on the floor. It was nothing more than the final stretch to end the third quarter, but the lineup wasn’t terrible.
“I didn’t get much of a look at it,” admitted Nurse. “A few minutes, but I wanted to look at it. It wasn’t a great lineup to do it against. They were one big and kinda wings and guards everywhere, but I think rotationally, sometimes we need that. They jumped in a zone pretty quick, we did OK.”
The Sixers covered more ground defensively and the spacing wasn’t terrible on offense. The Sixers were able to get Reed open looks underneath because Atlanta paid so much attention to Embiid.
“We got underneath, behind the zone, and got a couple good shots,” Nurse added. “I thought Paul did some nice finishing underneath the basket and around the rim. It didn’t seem to hurt us on defense either even though the matchups were kind of — they were tough, but we made them tougher by what we decided to do with it, but it looked OK.”
The Sixers have been working on a lot of different lineups and combinations in practice before using it in games and this two big men lineup is something that intrigues Embiid.
“Quite a few times,” Embiid said. “It looked pretty fine, but you can always get better. Even since last year, I’ve always thought we had potential of playing those type of two big lineups. Especially, with a guy like P-Reed or Mo (Bamba), some of the other guys that we have. Just gotta keep working to try to see whatever works and keep using it.”
The lineup will get better with practice. The Sixers must continue to run this type of lineup and continue to develop. That lineup can give Philadelphia an edge in certain matchups in order to come out on top and it’s a combination that must be explored further.
“The spacing’s a little different, but it’s actually a great lineup because they double Jo and stuff like that,” added Jaden Springer. “We got P-Reed around the rim, that’s a great finisher around the basket, and we got guys on the perimeter to hit open shots so I feel like it’s a pretty good lineup. Especially, on the defensive end, too.”
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