The Philadelphia 76ers are in Orlando preparing for a season resumption. They have a few questions to answer as they are making a few changes to their rotation. The big one is Shake Milton moving into the starting lineup and Al Horford moving to the bench.
This is a move that affects the rest of the bench unit as coach Brett Brown will now have to figure out how to work in his players. Philadelphia already has a potent starting five and Horford will definitely get some minutes and that’s already six players.
Where does that leave guys like Matisse Thybulle, Glenn Robinson III, Furkan Kormaz, and Alec Burks? They will have to fight for minutes and at times, the opposition will decide who Brown turns to. For example, against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, Brown rolled with Thybulle due to his defensive skills and he can defend Grizzlies scorer Ja Morant.
“Let’s go to the starting point, it’s highly competitive,” Brown explained. “This is growing quite rapidly into who claims that chunk of the stat sheet as it relates to minutes. I think that Matisse is still defensively, you fear that. Some of his slashing stands out, him sitting in a stance stalking Ja Morant, there is something that he has as a unique skill package.”
Then, there’s Robinson III who was known as a 3-and-D option for the Golden State Warriors before being acquired by Philadelphia. His athletic ability is something that stands out to Brown and it’s an aspect of the game that should earn him some minutes. He showed off some of that game in Friday’s win.
“There’s a physicality to Glenn on some go catch-catch go stuff at the rim that I think that he’s really good at,” the coach added. “I think that he’s embraced being a go guy like shot goes up, go get offensive rebounds. I thought that he was committed and got rewarded at times for doing that.”
At the end of the day, whoever the Sixers play, it will be focused on matchups and who Brown feels the most comfortable with. Against Memphis, he rolled with Thybulle for a little over 16 minutes while Robinson III played 14 minutes. That is due to the fact that he felt comfortable rolling with those two physical defenders.
“I think, in general, that logjam in a good way is highly competitive and driven at times by who we’re guarding,” Brown finished with. “For instance, Ja Morant and Matisse Thybulle.”
The Sixers will continue their scrimmage schedule in Orlando on Sunday at noon EST against the Oklahoma City Thunder. It will be interesting to see if Burks gets more time considering they have to face Chris Paul or Brown continues to give Thybulle and Robinson III the minutes against not only Paul, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as well. [lawrence-related id=35464,35458,35449]