The Philadelphia 76ers are obviously an awkward fit. They are going against conventional NBA wisdom at the moment by going big with Al Horford joining a lineup that already anchors Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The height amongst those three is something that rivals a team from 2005 rather than 2020.
The Sixers have had their issues on the offensive end all season due to a lack of spacing and shooting and coach Brett Brown has had to get creative in trying to find ways for guys to execute and be effective.
Obviously, a guy like Simmons is not much of a shooter so to space the floor, Brown is attempting to turn him more into a roller rather than having him handle the ball all of the time. That would make Josh Richardson the ball-handler in a lot of rolling situations and that’s something that the new Sixers shooting guard would like to see continue.
“I think that’s definitely a good look for us at some points during the season,” Richardson said of he and Simmons. “Just being able to use him as an athlete! He’s 6-foot-10 and he’s always the fastest person on the court so if I can come off, there’s a lot of different looks for me and if the defense slips up or anything, he knows how to make them pay whether it’s scoring or passing. There are a lot of different things coming out of that play.”
Simmons and Richardson have an offensive rating of 111.4 per Cleaning the Glass, but their biggest impact comes on the defensive end. The two of them have a defensive rating of 106.1 which is good for the 86th percentile.
The two of them have had good chemistry all season, but due to the pandemic, that threw a wrench into the plan. He and Simmons were able to keep in touch during the quarantine, but that is no match for playing together on the floor. It will be tough for them to get things going again as the season resumes in Orlando.
“There’s no real way to keep that going,” Richardson laughed. “You can’t train together, people have been quarantining so it’s kind of been tough to really keep that, but we’ve been in contact. Just talking about some stuff, not really basketball, but just life things and I think that’s important to keeping your chemistry and keeping the things before rolling.”
The Sixers will head to Orlando on July 9 and begin scrimmage games on July 24 before resuming the season officially on August 1 against the Indiana Pacers. Richardson and Simmons will be two of the driving forces that the team will need to win a championship. [lawrence-related id=34140,34133,34123]