January 11, 2016
Leave it to noted basketball philosopher Mike D’Antoni to describe the state of the Philadelphia 76ers roster.
“When you’re sleeping, you have a blanket and it’s too short,” Brett Brown said his top lieutenant told him. “Then you pull it up and your feet are cold and you pull it down and you’re just as cold.”
No, the Sixers coaching staff isn’t literally focused on keeping warm at night. They’re trying to figure out how to win games with a seriously undermanned roster.
Trot one five-man unit out there, you encounter some problems. Try to fix those problems with a substitution, and there is a whole new set of problems. That doesn’t mean Brown will stop trying, though.
“You can’t play everybody, so you have to decide, ‘Who is taking hits tonight?’” Brown said. “And things change with injury, foul trouble, and poor performance. Isaiah Canaan and Richaun took hits tonight, but we played ten guys. You can’t play everybody.”
“We’re always moving and trying to put out fires,” Brown said. “Should it be big ball? Should it be Jerami [Grant] at a 3? Whoops, they’re going underneath everything and collapsing on Jahlil, we need more shooters so we go Hollis and Nick. All game, you’re just trying to figure it out.”
Before every game, Brown is always asked one question at some point of his media availability: What’s the starting lineup? And while that may seem a bit trivial, it’s a legitimate question because the starters do change frequently. Last Thursday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks already marked the Sixers’ 20th different starting lineup of the season.
Some lineup volatility is to be expected, but from here, Brown makes a few questionable decisions from time to time. In the coach’s defense, it can be difficult to find the right answers on the Sixers roster.
Take Richaun Holmes for instance. We wrote about Holmes’ strong play last week, and he received two DNP-CDs over the weekend. The rookie has been one of the Sixers’ most promising players, and he probably should be getting consistent playing time even if it’s not necessarily major minutes.
“You can’t play everybody, so you have to decide, ‘Who is taking hits tonight?’” Brown said. “And things change with injury, foul trouble, and poor performance. Isaiah Canaan and Richaun took hits tonight, but we played ten guys. You can’t play everybody.”
Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor need to play a certain amount of minutes and they actually haven’t been a disaster together over the last week or so. Carl Landry only played nine minutes against the Cavs, and he has been very solid off the bench since coming back from injury.
Then there are players like Robert Covington and Jerami Grant who can slide over and play small-ball power forward. Per Nylon Calculus, Covington in particular has been much more effective playing the 4.
“Our defensive players aren’t our offensive players and vice versa,” Brown said. “The holy grail in this league is two-way players, you can really guard and make shots.”
(The Sixers have a potential 7’2” two-way player who has started to do some shooting before games again.)
“So we’re trying to grow Jerami [Grant] and Jakarr [Sampson]. Those two are maybe our best two perimeter defenders, but they would also be our lower percentage shooters. So you play that game, you want some shooters on the floor but now you got to guard.”
Add all of it up, and there is an explanation for how Holmes rides the pine for two games. It’s not ideal, but after an 85-point effort in the loss to Cleveland, maybe Brown’s feet are cold.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
