Philadelphia 76ers: The reintroduction of Jonah Bolden

After falling out of Brett Brown’s rotation in 2019, Jonah Bolden flashed brilliance as the Philadelphia 76ers’ starting center in Minnesota.

When news broke that Joel Embiid wasn’t going to join the Philadelphia 76ers on their final three-game road trip of the season, it seemed like the team was going to close out the regular season with a whimper, not a roar.

Facing off against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and their top-5 center Karl-Anthony Towns, many, yours truly included, wondered how the Sixers would be able to hold off Ryan Saunders‘ post-heavy offensive assault.

Boy were we wrong.

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With Boban Marjanovic an odd fit to face off against a stretch 5 KAT, Brett Brown opted to give Jonah Bolden a surprise start, his seventh of the year, to even more surprisingly impressive results.

In 31 minutes of action, the most he’s played in the NBA, Bolden set new career highs in points (19), and 3 pointers made (5-7) to go with eight rebounds, three assists, three blocks, and a steal.

Simply put; Bolden didn’t just survive Towns, he thrived.

Sure, KAT technically scored three more points, but Bolden’s length, speed, and athleticism all but neutralized the 7-foot force, preventing the Wolves from stretching out the team and feasting on mismatches.

Bolden is perfectly suited for the modern switch-happy NBA, as he can pretty much cover any backcourt player, regardless of their technical position. He can also shoot, as highlighted by his 15 points on seven shots from downtown, the best mark of any player on either team.

While Brown had great success deploying Bolden as a starting center against Minnesota, it’s entirely possible the 6-foot-10 Australian product by way of UCLA could be deployed as a positionless winger in the vein of Tobias Harris; in a very similar way to how the Toronto Raptors deploy their Most Improved Player candidate Paskal ‘Spicy P’ Siakam all over the court.

In the age of the unicorn, having a ‘unicorn-killer’ capable of matching up with these supersized shooters while also being a bit of a unicorn himself on the offensive end of the court is a serious advantage for a playoff bound team, especially one that deploys a 6-foot-10 point guard without an outside shot.

And the best part? The Sixers have Bolden under contract through the 2021-22 season on a four-year, $7 million deal.

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Typically, this would afford Coach Brown and company an opportunity to bring Bolden along slowly and ensure he’s fully ready to take on a larger, more consistent role with the organization, as highlighted by the decision to trade for both Boban and Mike Scott at the deadline. However, if he can continue to put up dominant performances against top-tier big men like Karl-Anthony Towns, Jonah Bolden could very well find himself leapfrogging both as the Philadelphia 76ers’ top big man off the bench; one capable of playing in place of Joel Embiid, or beside him in a super-sized front.