PHILADELPHIA–At the moment, the Philadelphia 76ers have two big men they can rely on to back up Joel Embiid in order to give him rest in games. Those two big men are Montrezl Harrell and Paul Reed and coach Doc Rivers continues to go back and forth between the two of them.
In Friday’s win over the New York Knicks, Rivers turned to Reed to back up Embiid after going with Harrell for a long stretch earlier in the season. The young big man gave Philadelphia some good minutes defensively and on the glass against a tough Knicks team in order to help get the win.
This is the second time Rivers has turned to Reed against the Knicks, as he did on Feb. 5, but Rivers says there’s no need to look into that. He trusts both of his big men.
“I trust Paul every night,” he said. “I trust Paul. I trust Trez. It’s not a trust thing.”
Rivers has said all season that the backup center will fluctuate between the two of them. Harrell has had a tough stretch as of late on the floor so Rivers is now turning to Reed to give him his chance. When Reed begins to struggle, then it will be time for Harrell to get another shot.
“I just thought it’s time for Paul to play,” Rivers added. “Trez has had a run and kinda has not played well. I think I said this before the year. This is how it’s gonna be. We have two guys that hopefully keep pushing each other. When one starts to not play great, we’ll use the other guy and give him a consistent run and see how it goes.”
One could make the argument that this style of coaching isn’t sustainable and they should settle on just one guy, but when one looks at the standings and sees the success the Sixers are having, it’s hard to argue.
Either way, Philadelphia will have to figure out the backup center spot. The team needs to find successful play when Embiid goes to the bench and that will be something to watch as the season goes down the stretch and gets into the playoffs.
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