The past couple of days have been a whirlwind since James Harden, and Paul Milsap have been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. The blockbuster trade completed just two hours before the trade deadline saw the Sixers send Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, and Andre Drummond to the Nets for Harden and Milsap. With integral parts of the Sixers rotation moving to New York, Coach Doc Rivers and staff will have to make changes to the rotation. Take a look at what the rotation could look like going forward:
Seth Curry started at SG for the Sixers, while Andre Drummond was the best back the Sixers had for Joel Embiid and could start and play 30 minutes if Embiid was out. With the arrival of Harden, you would expect him to replace Curry in the starting lineup. The starting lineup will more than likely end up being James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid. Thybulle and Embiid will continue to anchor the defense in that starting unit while having Harden in the lineup will allow for less of an offensive load for the MVP front-runner.
The contributors off the bench will include Furkan Korkmaz, Danny Green, Georges Niang, Shake Milton, and Isaiah Joe. Paul Reed, Charles Bassey, and Paul Milsap will be fighting for minutes as Embiid’s backup. The Sixers will also be looking into the buyout market for another center to give them some size and rebounding.
Currently, Rivers goes to all bench lineups a lot and isn’t necessarily known for staggering his stars to allow one of them to be on the court at all times. Harris occasionally runs with the subs depending on the opposing team and matchup. There have also been discussions about Rivers staggering Embiid and Maxey’s minutes more, as one of them should be on the floor at all times.
With Harden’s arrival, the Sixers should always have a primary ball-handler on the floor. In this case, Maxey or Harden should always be out there. One of Embiid or Harris should be on the floor at all times as well, allowing to keep some reliable scoring with some of the substitutes. Rivers and staff will have to determine which duo fits better together with the bench mob. To help build chemistry between the team’s best players, Rivers could stagger Embiid and Harden’s minutes together, while Maxey and Harris’ minutes could be tied together.
It may take a few games to work out the rotation and the chemistry but having a former MVP and top 75 NBA player of all time added to your roster is a great problem to have.
