PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers will officially be the No. 4 seed and they will take on the Toronto Raptors in Round 1 of the playoffs. There will certainly be a lot of challenges in that series, such as Matisse Thybulle’s status, but the question of who will be the backup center in that series is an interesting question.
Ever since the Sixers signed veteran DeAndre Jordan to a deal off the buyout market, he has gotten the majority of the minutes behind Joel Embiid. However, due to a smaller and energetic team like the Raptors, they might go to second-year big man Paul Reed who has gotten the backup center minutes over the final three games of the regular season.
Reed had 25 points and six rebounds in Sunday’s win over the Detroit Pistons, but coach Doc Rivers wasn’t ready to anoint him or anything.
“I’m not gonna go on a Paul Reed victory tour, so don’t start,” said Rivers. “We’re tying to win a world championship.”
The big issue with Reed has always been the fact that although he is talented and energetic, he can be in the wrong position a lot of the time and he had five fouls on Sunday. However, he has been playing well lately and the Sixers will take that.
“It’s important,” Rivers added. “That’s huge for us, but having said that, I got a feeling that Joel will be playing more. Unless y’all want us to sit him so I don’t get caught up in all that stuff.”
When Rivers was pressed a bit more about playing Reed more over Jordan, he broke it down very swiftly.
“Let me clarify this one more time for everybody who struggles with this,” Rivers said. “When there’s a small lineup, we’ll play smaller with Paul. When there’s a big 5, you play bigger with DJ.”
Reed does have a tendency of getting into foul trouble early That causes a lot of issues for the Sixers when the time comes for the playoffs and that is something that is going to have to be considered in the postseason.
Rivers trusts his staff as they prepare for the Raptors.
“Against big 5s, because of fouling, we like DJ,” Rivers continued. “We have a whole coaching staff, who I’m just gonna guess knows a little bit more and they watch every game. They watch every practice. We believe against big 5s, DJ is good for us. We believe against smalls, Paul. Could we play Paul with a big 5? Yeah, you could. He may get in foul trouble early in a playoff game which could swing a game. I’ve been around a long time. Trust that.”
Rivers has a good point. Everybody loves Reed, and it’s fair, he’s shown a lot of bright flashes, but at the end of the day, he might not quite be ready for extensive playing time just yet. He can be pretty wild out on the floor at times and that is why Jordan gets the majority of the playing time.
It will be interesting to see what the Sixers do with the position come playoff time.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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