The Philadelphia 76ers are in dire straits right now as they are down nine players at the moment due to health and safety protocols and various injuries this early in the season. This is the landscape that the league is dealing with as they wade into the murky waters of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Sixers had to play a game on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets leaning on three rookies in the starting lineup–Tyrese Maxey, Dakota Mathias, and Isaiah Joe–and then another rookie off the bench–Paul Reed–who played significant minutes against a Western Conference Finalist.
Due to the tough times, coach Doc Rivers is focused on development and keeping his players healthy more than anything else right now until he gets his team back.
“Development, number one,” Rivers started. “Health is number two because I think what we’re missing in this is COVID created this, but the concern is not COVID now, the concern is injuries because guys are playing so many minutes because we don’t have enough guys.”
In Saturday’s game, Maxey played 43:45, Joe played 44:51, and Mathias played 41:03 as they had to play heavy minutes due to the situation presented to them. Reed also played 26:11 after playing a grand total of 1:24 in the NBA entering Saturday.
“I think if I was deciding games in that way I would be very careful if I’m in the league,” Rivers added. “You don’t want that to happen either and so, for example, I’m looking at our stat sheet we had 1, 2, 3 guys plus 40 and it couldn’t be avoided. Now we play again in two days, then we play again, and so that’s my concern with this is that we got to be very careful in how we navigate over the next week.”
It is important that Rivers and his coaching staff do their best to manage these young player’s minutes. On one side, it’s important that they get this type of experience for their future, but on the other side, playing too many high-stress minutes for a guy who has not played that many minutes in the past can cause an injury in some cases.
Of course, the Sixers could possibly have Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid return on Monday as they both cleared the league’s protocols. They were late scratches against the Nuggets due to Simmons having knee stiffness and Embiid dealing with back issues. If they could return, that would be a huge lift to the lineup. If not, then the Sixers will have to keep it pushing,
“Our staff does a really good job of communicating to us beforehand on things like that,” said Joe. “I think a week like we’re gonna have we just got to be prepared for anything. Whether we have some players come back, whether we have to play seven again, we’re definitely prepared for whatever we have in front of us, but they definitely do a great job of letting us know as early as possible.”
The Sixers will battle Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks at 7:30 p.m. EST on Monday.
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