The Philadelphia 76ers are a team filled with a lot of versatile players up and down the roster. That fact makes finding the right point guard that much more interesting for coach Brett Brown.
Obviously, Ben Simmons is the team’s starter at the position, but the Sixers have continued to say that they would like to move him off the ball a bit more and grow him in other ways. The team had put the ball in the hands of Josh Richardson, Shake Milton, and even Alec Burks before the league went into suspension on March 11 and with the season set to resume, they have those options to turn to for point guard duties. Therefore, they can trust plenty of guys to fill that role and they do not have to designate just one singular option.
“I do feel, if you go back to my wish, growing Ben in multiple areas,” Brown explained. “There are times you’re going to end up seeing J-Rich maybe with the ball, you’re certainly going to see Shake with the ball. In a funny situation, you may see Furkan (Korkmaz) bring it up. Alec Burks bring it up so I don’t feel entirely locked into like ‘here is the backup point guard’, because of the variety of the team that we have the versatility, that Ben Simmons can play with. I feel very strongly about that.”
The team will head down to Orlando on July 9 and then begin a formal training camp to get back into the swing of things. They will then begin scrimmage play on July 24 against the Memphis Grizzlies and during that time, Brown and his staff will then decide what to do with the rotation.
Milton was playing very well before the league suspension and he will most likely get the first crack at the position, but guys will have to earn their spot in Brown’s rotation. They will have to go out there and prove that they deserve to play.
“Shake’s put his hand up in a pretty definitive way initially,” the Sixers head man added. “Does it play out like after a few weeks in Orlando with camp? I don’t know and I say this all the time as if we were sort of back at the start of the camp, the gym’s going to speak. The gym is going to tell me and the team, by and large, most time everybody walks out the gyms like I just said in unison ‘Well he’s clearly the spot’.”
There’s no secret that Philadelphia’s issues all season have mostly been on the offensive end of the floor where they have struggled to get Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Al Horford to mesh on that end. Brown believes with the options the team has at the point guard spot can relieve some of the spacing issues if they can move Simmons off the ball effectively. That is something on his mind as the team gets set to head to Orlando.
“I think it’s one of the main things offensively if you judge our team and say ‘Well, is the greatest work to be done defensively or offensively?’ It’s offense,” Brown finished with. “I think we ended up getting to fifth or sixth with Jo and Al on the floor playing together. I feel like we’re first with Jo and third with Al when those two are playing so our offense has been at times a little clunky. We think we can space that, use that better when Ben is off the ball at times and who that other primary ball carrier is will sort of take shape as I’ve just said.”
This upcoming postseason will be one that should interest a lot of Sixers fans in the team’s effort to chase a championship in the midst of a lot of adversity. [lawrence-related id=34039,34006,33997]