Who Sits For Philadelphia 76ers In 2016-2017?

With new faces and position logjams, who starts and who sits for Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016-2017 season?

There are five starters, and fifteen roster spots. On many teams, the only players to earn over 20+ minutes are the starters. On the Philadelphia 76ers, the team had eight players average over 20+ minutes per game, while three others averaged over 15 minutes. That exemplifies the turnstyle lineup caused by injuries, experiments, and roster moves that kept things very interesting in the 2015-2016, albeit at a cost to the overall record.

The number and frequency of lineup changes should decline in the 2016-2017 season with the roster coming up to full strength. But even in considering the potential for six new faces, there are too many bodies and too few chairs. Who will likely end up where?

Well, the Point Guard spot is probably the easiest to determine. That starter is likely not currently on the roster. If the Sixers end up with Ben Simmons, I project he will get the nod there. If the team ends up with Brandon Ingram, they will likely try to deal for Dennis Schroder. That likely places T.J. McConnell on the bench, plus a rookie from the late first round.

If the Sixers end up with Brandon Ingram, you’ve got your Shooting Guard. If not, the Sixers will likely shop the free agency market for a two-way wing – perhaps the likes of Nicolas Batum or Harrison Barnes. However, I can see the team giving Robert Covington a shot at the two spot as a plan B. That places both Isaiah Canaan and Nik Stauskas on the bench.

Small Forward is a tad nebulous at this point. While I think Dario Saric will get the bulk of his minutes here, he won’t be the starter. If Covington doesn’t rotate to shooting guard, he starts. Otherwise the likely starter at first is Jerami Grant, who I expect will earn the starting role early in the season.

Now for the big men. It’s easier to go to the Center spot at this point. I think Jahlil Okfor will start at center, and that brings Nerlens Noel off the bench. While I think both players will improve, it’s the offense of Okafor that will force his way into the starting lineup.

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But what about superstar Joel Embiid? I continue to envision his role evolving into a center/power forward due to his incredible athleticism, much like the Houston Rockets used the play of their big man Ralph Sampson. When Hakeem Olajuwon arrived, Sampson slid off the five and into the four, giving the Houston Rockets a dominating duo at the post. With the continuous streaming of youtube videos of Embiid working on perimeter shooting and the strong investment into his health, I see the path of his NBA career linking both the center and power forward positions. While the team will give him minutes at center, I see Embiid as the man most likely to start at Power Forward by mid season. That will mean Carl Landry and Richaun Holmes will likely work from the bench.

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Why is any of this important? Well, if you examine the 2014-2015 season, it was the bench that oftentimes brought the Sixers back to a competitive position in the myriad of losses. No, not as some have said due to garbage and meaningless minutes. The true reason is the work ethic of this team, and their commitment to coming hard the entire game. The first area of true strength of this team will be the bench. When you bring a team of T.J. McConnell, Nerlens Noel, Isaiah Canaan, Jerami Grant, and Richaun Holmes, you match up awfully well to the bench of virtually any other NBA team. Most teams have their focus on their starters, whereas the Sixers have rotated players and shared minutes that the bench players will excel next season while the starters acclimate to one another and to the NBA game as a whole.

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For the year of 2015-2016, we’ve been ridiculed as a team of players who were not worthy of benches of other teams, despite having tremendous success of our players finding homes on other teams. In 2016-2017, the Sixers take it up a notch, and turn their reserves into a competitive advantage. Hinkie did his research. The bench of an NBA team is like a special teams play of an NFL football team – it seldom gets attention, but is the true difference between a champion and a runner up. In 2016-2017, I am compelled to trust our bench will begin to win their battles.

To be honest, that group of young men who have endured the 2015-2016 season have grown up together. As long as Bryan Colangelo keeps them together, they will do great things.