The Philadelphia 76ers could use a player like Patty Mills

The Philadelphia 76ers could use their own Patty Mills.

By signing Al Horford to a massive max contract last summer – yes, it was that recently – the Philadelphia 76ers severely limited their future optionality.

With their salary cap severely tied up for the foreseeable future in four nine-figure contracts, Josh Richardson, and a bunch of rookie/vet minimum contract players to hang their hats on for 2020 and beyond, the team Elton Brand handpicked was built to win one way and one way only: With a massive starting five capable of outscoring opposing teams handily.

When it works, and make no mistake, it has worked at times, the 76ers have looked like world-beaters, capable of beating any team in the league, but when it doesn’t, my goodness things can get downright ugly.

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Sure, they’ll occasionally get that random 30 point game from Furkan Korkmaz, or watch in borderline amazement as a player like Norvel Pelle racks up four blocks in 12 minutes of action, but the Sixers just aren’t a team loaded with bench pieces capable of turning a game around on their own, less so than maybe any other team in the current NBA playoff picture.

So what, you may ask, could the Sixers really, really use right about now? A player like San Antonio reserve guard Patty Mills.

As you (probably) saw in the Sixers’ bubble bout against the Spurs, Gregg Popovich inserted Mills into the game when his team needed a little extra pop offensively, and for the most part, it worked. Despite only playing 19 minutes, Mills went 3-7 from the field for eight points, four rebounds, and a pair of assists.

Are those great numbers? No, they ranked sixth on the team behind starters DeMar DeRozen, Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, and fellow reserves Keldon Johnson, and Rudy Gay, but Mills’ impact on the game didn’t exclusively appear on the stats sheet. He brought energy, fire, and a tempo shift that disrupted what Brett Brown was trying to do at both ends of the court.

By contrast, when the Sixers switched from Shake Milton to Raul Neto (more on that here), they didn’t get faster, better at shooting, or better defensively, they just got, um, less good (technically speaking). While Neto is without a doubt a more willing passer than Milton and actually turned in a really good game against the Spurs in 11 minutes of action, he doesn’t bring anything new to the table, so to speak.

In theory, Ben Simmons could provide that much-needed change of pace as a super-sized driver to the basket, but thus far, Coach Brown has been hesitant to regularly deploy that look when Joel Embiid exits the court, as Neto and Milton have averaged 38.5 minutes of action a night. If Shake starts playing 30-plus minutes of action a night and Neto continues to play into the mid-teens, Simmons may find himself relegated to an off-ball role full time.

Granted, the emergence of Neto could have more to do with Brown using as much time as possible to get Simmons used to playing at the four spot, with a return to backup point guard coming in the playoffs, but at this point, it’s hard to know exactly what the seventh-year head coach is thinking.

Had the Sixers opted to target a legit backup point guard and a combo forward like Gay in free agency over ‘stealing’ a veteran forward from a division rival, maybe they too would be able to field multiple looks with positive Real Plus-Minuses when their starters are off the court, but because Brand really, really, wanted to guarantee a top-tier backup big for when Embiid is unable to go, we’re left with Horford coming off the bench for an average of 27.5 minutes of action a night.

You know, according to the TradeNBA, the Sixers could trade Al Horford for Patty Mills and Rudy Gay straight up from a financial standpoint… just saying.

For what it’s worth, at least Brett Brown understands that the roster built for him by Elton Brand, even after trading a trio of second-round picks to the Warriors for Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III, isn’t quite as viable in practice as it is on paper. By starting Shake Milton, he’s at least giving the Philadelphia 76ers a more traditional look with improved spacing and additional ball handling. It’s just a shame the team doesn’t have another, more veteran Milton coming off the bench to calm things down and speed things up on the second unit; a player like Brown’s former Australian National team shooting guard Patty Mills.