Philadelphia 76ers: J.J. Redick stakes claim to start in win over the Heat

After failing to log a start in the first month of the season, J.J. Redick made a major statement in the Philadelphia 76ers win over the Heat.

In his first start of the season, J.J. Redick got buckets for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Logging 31 minutes of action in South Beach, including a substantial chunk alongside Markelle Fultz both before and after halftime, Redick made 11 of his 20 shots from the field, including a trio of tres from behind the arc for 25 points and brought a fiery intensity that’s noticeably been missing at the start of games.

It’s almost like he had something to prove. Now, what could that be?

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In case you’re living under a rock, Brett Brown‘s squad just made a monster trade to acquire Jimmy Butler in an attempt by Elton Brand to craft his own Big 3.

While the move was costly, as Philly fans had to tearfully say goodbye to Dario Saric and Robert Covington, it simultaneously makes the team a whole lot better and creates a slew of questions about the team’s potential pairings moving forward. No matter how you slice it, if you replace two starters with one, another shoe has to drop.

Though the sample size is small, Redick all but proved that he could be an invaluable addition to the starting five at shooting guard.

Before the game even began I floated the idea of moving Ben Simmons back to his natural position of power forward, and how it could free up a backcourt of Redick and Fultz moving forward.

And maybe that idea wasn’t too far off.

Against the Heat, Brown trotted out a starting five of Ben Simmons, Fultz, Redick, Wilson Chandler, and Joel Embiid in the paint. While Chandler was slotted in at power forward, and Redick technically earned a start as a 6-foot-4 small forward, the theory was mostly the same and laid out a pretty clear blueprint for a new look starting five once Butler joins the team.

So, regardless of what position each player is semantically asked to play, it’s clear that Redick, the Philadelphia 76ers second-leading scorer deserves a chance to return to the starting five either alongside Fultz or instead of Fultz.

With Butler an average outside shooter by even the most optimistic evaluation, if Philly is going to set Simmons up for success, and optimize Simmons unique skill set, Coach Brown needs to find a way to surround his young Unicorn with shooters on the wings. While playing Redick off the bench does provide value, as he is certainly the best bench shooter in the entire NBA bar none, he simply provides more value in the starting five where his shooting prowess can help to start the game out on the right foot.

The emergence of Landry Shamet and Furkan Korkmaz as a pair of reliable outside shooters on the wing should make moving Redick to the starting five all the more palatable, as they can help to replace his bench scoring clip while helping to bolster one of the least productive offensive shooting lineups in the league.

With basically every option on the table, as Brett Brown will more or less have to re-design the vast majority of his sets with the inclusion of Jimmy Butler, if the Philadelphia 76ers are serious about making a splash and establishing themselves as one of the best teams in the East, they need to start J.J. Redick moving forward.