Philadelphia 76ers: Doc Rivers and Daryl Morey differ on Paul Reed

The Philadelphia 76ers have a problem.

On paper, they are a very good team, with a solid collection of young prospects, in-their-prime stars, and veteran roleplayers alike, but there have been times of varying duration and frequency where the Sixers just don’t perform up to the sum of their parts.

You’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it, and yet, for whatever reason, Doc Rivers has remained stubbornly married to his well-worn lineup card, with only the occasional subversion usually due to circumstance out of his control.

Case and point, Rivers’ maddening reliance on lineups that feature Ben Simmons on the court with a non-shooting center, usually resident “energy guy” Dwight Howard.

Through the first 50 games of the 2020-21 NBA season, Simmons has played 1,403 total minutes. Of those minutes, 467 of them have been alongside a non-shooting center – 142 with Tony Bradley and 325 with Dwight Howard – versus 777 playing along with his best on-court fit, Joel Embiid.

Unsurprisingly, when Simmons and Embiid are on the court together, usually in the starting five, the Sixers are really good, featuring the second-best two-man +/- of any pairing on the team (256) behind only Embiid-Curry (269) but when “The Fresh Prince” is tasked with playing alongside either Bradley or Howard, his efficiency drops significantly down to 13 and -83 respectively.

Now maybe I’m just being naive here, but if I was getting outscored by an average of .25 points per minute with a specific player pairing, I wouldn’t rely on it for almost eight minutes a game. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

But why is this the case? Howard is a solid enough defender, and Simmons is one of the best position-less defenders in the entire NBA, so how can pairing the duo up be so gosh darn ineffective? One word: Scoring.

While lineups featuring both Simmons and Howard have scored 697 total points, that only accounts for roughly 2.14 points per minute, versus 2.57 points per minute when Embiid is paired up with Curry in their most efficient pairing. If the Sixers were able to consistently pair Simmons and Howard up with a trio of knockdown outside shooters – say, Curry, Danny Green, and Tobias Harris – maybe the duo’s offensive redundancies could be mitigated, but as things presently stand, the Sixers just don’t have the personnel to consistently get that done.

*sigh* If only the team has another option to play at center who can actually space the floor correctly for Simmons. Oh wait, they do; there are just certain elements of the team who aren’t particularly keen on playing him for one reason or another.

The Philadelphia 76ers need to make up their collective mind on Paul Reed.

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After dropping a general bummer of a Joel Embiid-less loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Philadelphia 76ers’ head coach Doc Rivers was asked about giving some minutes to Paul Reed at the five, as the not-so-dynamic duo of Mike Scott and Dwight Howard finished out the contest with a combined +/- of 25 – which is sort of impressive, considering the duo scored 18 points in 44 minutes of action.

Doc’s response will – to ape a classic clickbait trope – surprise you.

“No, I haven’t.” Rivers told the assembled media. “I like Paul, but I don’t think he’s ready.”

Huh, interesting.

Now granted, this isn’t the first time Rivers has expressed skepticism about giving Reed a more substantial role, as he had previously mentioned that the team hasn’t really practiced with the DePaul product at the five spot, but that seemed more like a timing issue than a fault with the skillset of a specific player. Rivers’ new comments directly relate to Reed’s present readiness, which is a whole different ball game and a whole lot more concerning for fans hoping for a new, more dynamic lineup when Embiid is off the court.

Oh well, that’s that, I guess. Rivers doesn’t think Reed is ready to muck it up with the “big boys” down in the paint – Reed’s words, not mine – so I guess the Sixers will have to continue to rely on Howard and small-ball Scott to get things done, right?

Well, if that’s the case, why did Daryl Morey go out of his way to rip of Reed’s two-way contract and lock him into a three-year NBA contract a la Isaiah Joe post-draft? Why not use that available roster spot on a free agent center who can actually knock down open spots, especially when there were a few intriguing options like Gorgui Dieng available on the buyout market?

I mean, theoretically, Morey’s idea wasn’t a bad one. Reed was fresh off an incredible tenure with the Blue Coats that saw the team make it all the way to the G-League finals, and he was named both the G-League Rookie of the Year and the G-League MVP for his incredible run as Delaware’s small-ball center. Even if Reed is still developing his body for the rigors of the NBA level, surely he could outperform another small-ball center like Scott, who hasn’t been particularly effective all season long.

In the eyes of Rivers, that hasn’t happened and probably won’t any time soon, leaving the Sixers in a bit of a pickle as to what they can do to shore up their rotation with the playoffs inching closer and closer each game.

Next. Tobias Harris is more Ryan Madson than Brad Lidge. dark

Ultimately, giving Paul Reed more run is, to borrow from The Jump, something, nothing, and everything. It’s something because Reed is a shooting big man who could potentially give Ben Simmons more room to operate in the paint. It’s nothing because Reed will all but surely be left out of the playoff rotation, as will either Mike Scott or Dwight Howard depending on the game, situation, or matchup. But it’s everything because we’ll never know if Reed can blossom into a legitimate contributor before our very eyes a la Shake Milton one year ago, unless he actually gets time on the court to prove his worth and mesh with his Philadelphia 76ers teammates. Because honestly, how can a player prove they are or aren’t ready without having a chance to shot it?