The Philadelphia 76ers pride themselves on being one of the best defensive teams in the league. They have two elite defensive big men down low in Joel Embiid and Al Horford and they also have Ben Simmons out on the perimeter to help out.
However, could there be one elite defensive pairing out on the perimeter for Philadelphia? In the form of Simmons and Josh Richardson? The man they call J-Rich seems to think so as the two of them have a defensive rating of 106.1 which is good for the 86th percentile per Cleaning the Glass.
“Ben is one of the best defenders in the NBA,” laughed Richardson. “I like to think of myself as one of them too.”
Everybody knew how good of a defender Richardson was in his first season with the Sixers as he made a big impact out on that end of the floor. However, after being away from him for four months, coach Brett Brown needed a little reminder of what he can do on defense.
“I’m reminded of just how good of a defensive player he is when I now see him repetitively and basketball season, so to speak, has started back up again,” Brown said. “Although we all kind of knew it, to live it, breathe it, and see it first hand after a few months off, you’re just reminded of how good defensively he is. He’s so slippery, he can avoid screens, he’s really hard to screen, and whether it’s on-ball or off-ball, he can shoot gaps, he gets hands on balls, and I think that defensively he has been outstanding. He’s really, really set the tempo for our defense.”
Josh Richardson discusses how quickly he was able to jump back into things defensively and how he believes he and Ben Simmons are 2 of the best defenders in the league #Sixers pic.twitter.com/CkFdC4YutT
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) July 18, 2020
Despite not being able to play with Simmons, specifically, Richardson was still able to get some workouts in to be able to stay in shape and help himself get ready for this opportunity. So, with the season resuming, he was able to just jump right back into it with no issues.
“It’s been pretty good from a sense, over most of that time, I was still working out,” he explained. “I think a lot of guys were still working out so I think a lot of it is just getting our chemistry back, I think that’s a big thing.”
The Sixers will need Richardson and Simmons to continue their work on the defensive end as the season gets set to resume. They both will have the challenges of having to defend players such as Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, and others when the season does resume on August 1 for them. [lawrence-related id=34932,34921,34911]