The Philadelphia 76ers are in the process of going through a major starting lineup change as Ben Simmons is moving from point guard to the power forward. So that means a lot of different changes to the rotation and how the Sixers want to run things.
The idea for Simmons at this new spot on the floor is for him to run the offense as a point forward and Shake Milton playing point guard as a shooter to space the floor. That would then move Al Horford to the bench and Philadelphia can play a bit faster both with the starting unit and the bench unit.
With this new configuration, coach Brett Brown hopes to have a second unit that includes Horford, Furkan Korkmaz, and Matisse Thybulle joining Simmons and Tobias Harris. In this lineup, Simmons would go back to handling the ball.
“I have come into camp and playing Ben Simmons all over the place,” said Brown. “He does have the ball at times, I have played him as a 4-man, and so I suspect that that will continue and I will use him in many ways.”
A strength of this second group would be their defense and their ability to push the ball and use the amount of versatility that they offer on the floor and on a fastbreak.
Brown explained this:
Let’s start with defense. Obviously, without Joel Embiid [off the floor], you start figuring out how do you take a big team with Tobias and Ben and Al at 6-foot-10 and then you come in with Matisse, and Furk has grown defensively. There’s a versatility and a sort of switchability that that team can play with. I think there’s a disruptive mentality that can turn people over and use that as a launching pad to play fast. Then segue into the offensive end of it, you get Ben with the ball and you play downhill. There are great things that happen from that.
Brown has been raving about Thybulle’s defense a lot recently and there is a type of speed that Brown wants the team to play with. Especially, when considering how fast Simmons and Thybulle can be in the open court.
“I think one of our strengths is just the speed,” Thybulle added. “We’re a tall group, but we’re not tall and slow. We’ve got Ben pushing the ball, T (Harris) and Al are both huge and can also run. I think we have a lot of fun out of that just getting up and down the court.”
With this second unit configuration, the Sixers will take advantage of the ball-handling ability of Josh Richardson, Milton, and Simmons in the starting unit. Brown has set up practice in a way where he can see all of his options. Philadelphia is a team that should attempt to thrive on its versatility and speed.
“I’ve done something with a design of our practices where I keep a team and they’ll see through the whole practice. It will involve ‘how am I going to rotate the group?’,” Brown added. “I did something different than I did the last four practices with that group that we’re considering starting. With J-Rich, he was paired up with Joel and the other team had Ben, Tobias, and Al and Matisse and Furk and so you see those two hook up for pick-and-rolls J-Rich and Joel.”
The Sixers still have time to figure everything out before the official restart on August 1 so Brown and his staff will have a few more weeks to really hammer down a consistent rotation. [lawrence-related id=34968,34960,34953]