The Philadelphia 76ers already have a lot of issues to work out, but now the bigger issue will be replacing Ben Simmons who continues to be out with a lower back injury.
The team announced before Monday’s matchup with the Atlanta Hawks that Simmons is not even with the team and that he is being evaluated away from the team. This will cause Simmons to be out indefinitely and that there is no real timetable for his return.
The Sixers will be missing one of the better players in the league regardless of position and the team has some really big shoes to fill. Coach Brett Brown says the team will run the point guard position by committee in the time being.
“I wouldn’t say it’s one person I think it will be done by committee,” explained Brown. “To anoint like you’re the guy, it may evolve to that, but to do that, right now I don’t think anybody stands out enough to be able to hand that badge over.”
ESPN Sources: Sixers star Ben Simmons is still undergoing treatment and evaluation on his back and there’s expected to be a course of action decided upon soon. This isn’t a day-to-day injury; Simmons will miss time. How much time? That’s still unclear.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 24, 2020
The Sixers have some capable options in Josh Richardson, Alec Burks, Furkan Korkmaz, and others who can handle the ball, but none of them are traditional point guards. In fact, those guys are more of the scoring type of a guard and they look for their own offense rather than others.
“We’re going to have choices of who are the ball carriers,” Brown explained. “The candidates, from some sort, could be Raul Neto or Furk or Alec Burks, J-Rich, Shake (Milton) so you have capable people that aren’t traditional point guards but have the ability to you know get the ball up the floor then at that point you probably going to have to be in something that has motion and continuity, instead of just like giving, Chris Paul the ball and say go to work out of a pick-and-roll as an example.”
None of these guys are Simmons, they never will be Simmons, but they are what the team has right now and they are the best options Brown can roll with. These guys can run the offense to a point where they can at least hold down the fort until Simmons is ready.
“This is the opportunity we have without NBA All-Star without a starting point guard,” the coach added. “We will manufacture ball carriers with the group that’s been left outside of Ben being not with us and find out what that role looks like and who has that responsibility.”
Philadelphia will get their first chance on Monday against the Atlanta Hawks. [lawrence-related id=26388,26374,26352]