The Philadelphia 76ers have championship visions dancing in their heads. That’s why they made the moves they made in the offseason by bringing in Al Horford and Josh Richardson to join their talented group.
Yet, something was missing. They needed some shooting and scoring off the bench to support a very talented starting lineup and they feel like they made the moves necessary to fill that void with the acquisitions of Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks.
Those two talented wings join a bench group that’s led by an emerging Furkan Korkmaz and impressive rookie Matisse Thybulle to provide depth behind Tobias Harris. That means coach Brett Brown has to decide on who plays and who doesn’t.
“We all can agree to is there’s a stable of wings and something’s got to give,” said Brown. “There’s only so many minutes. Because the group is flexible, you have options and for me to have the group that we have, this is our team and then to be able to look at it and take a deep dive over All-Star break where you can figure out how are you going to play this? How are you going to best use the team is on my mind.”
So how does Brown best decide on who’s going to play and who doesn’t? That will be up to the players to earn their spot in the rotation.
“We’re going to watch this thing play out,” he explained. “There’s a competitive environment that I say to them, the gym kind of tells me most times. That’s how I intend to let this play out.”
The options include Korkmaz who continues to impress and grow into a bomber that Brown wants off his bench. He is now shooting 39.8% from deep and is shooting a sizzling 13-for-20 from deep in the previous two games combined.
Then, there’s Thybulle who makes such an impact for this team on both ends of the floor. While his 3-point stroke continues to be a work in progress, his defense is already towards the top of the league and he is coming into his own every day.
Then Burks and Robinson will factor in somehow as they both give this team what they need. They need guys who can shoot, they both shoot better than 37.5% from deep, and they both can get after it on the defensive end. Burks can also get to the foul line which certainly helps this team.
“It’s not clear, is it?” asked a smiling Brown. “I think that’s a good thing. I think the options that you have are a good thing. I think you can go to other things, J-Rich, Matisse, Glenn Robinson, like you can go to different things. Is it going to be the answer? I don’t know. I think those are the things that are on my mind on how to play it as thing unfolds.”
At some point, however, Brown is going to have to settle on a rotation. Once the playoffs roll around, he has to have a settled rotation and he has to know who he is going to play on a consistent and regular basis. That’s what this final stretch of the season should tell him as he works his team into form.
“I think where it gets complicated is at some point it needs to be settled,” he added. “A settled environment. It needs to be a earned, settled, environment. Like this thing, you wished it could be January 1 and here we are, but it isn’t and that’s the nature of the trade deadline. That’s my job to figure that out.”
He has 28 games to figure all of that out before the playoffs begin in April. [lawrence-related id=25401,25393,25383]