Philadelphia 76ers Bench Will Bang Boards

By Bret Stuter | Jul 26, 2016

Jan 27, 2016; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown talks with his team during the fourth quarter of the game against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons defeated the 76ers 110-97. Mandatory Credit: Leon Halip-USA TODAY Sports /

As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for the 2016-2017 season, the team is awash with new faces who will likely start. That pushes some very good rebounders of the team to the bench

After the first five minutes, time is called. The Philadelphia 76ers begin to substitute players with their starters: center Nerlens Noel goes in for either Jahlil Okafor or Joel Embiid, Richaun Holmes enters for Dario Saric, Jerami Grant goes in for Ben Simmons, Robert Covington for Gerald Henderson, and T.J. McConnell for Sergio Rodriguez.

What just happened on to the rebounding potential?

In 36 minutes of play, Noel gets 9.9 rebounds, Covington 7.9, Holmes 6.9., Grant 6.3, and McConnell 5.6 rebounds. That’s 31.6 rebounds per 36 minutes of play, on average. But these are young player, and that is just 75% of a games official time. For a full 48 minutes, this squad will generate… sit down and start the drum roll please… 42.1 rebounds per game.

This is the bench.

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Now this is not an article to send you into some realm of fantasy of the Philadelphia 76ers becoming a championship team overnight. But the team only managed 31.8 rebounds per game last season, and this bench will nearly average that amount in 36 minutes.

Let that sink in a moment.

The same team caused 8.3 steals per game last season, which was good enough for tenth best in the NBA. This bench next season generated 8.2 steals per 36 minutes, good enough for 10.93 steals per game.

Once more, that would contribute to the team leading the NBA.

From the moment you start Okafor/Embiid at center, Saric at power forward, Simmons at small forward, Henderson at shooting guard, and Rodriguez at point guard, the team has just created one of the most productive and deep benches in the entire NBA.

In fact, the only thing this bench will struggle with is generating points. At just 69 points per 36 minutes, the team will score just 92 points per game.

The point of all this statistical hypotheses is to grasp just how good the Philadelphia 76ers bench will be this season. These are not marginal players as many argue, but players who through the course of the 2015-2016 season started on average 36.2 games.

Now they will be lining up against players who averaged less than ten starts per season. This is a lineup whose average height will be 6-foot-8 inches, who are outstanding defensively, and they’ve just entered the game against the other team’s reserves.

Call me overly optimistic, but I like our chances in that scenario. Building a championship is adhering to that attention to detail. While many pro sports focus on the points, true championships focus on niche, special teams, depth. The Philadelphia 76ers, whose bench last season was sparingly manned and seldom considered as competitive, has just become far more improved than the starting lineup.

We talked about key statistics defining an NBA championship caliber team recently. In our discussion, we identified shooting accuracy, assists, rebounds, and three-point shooting accuracy as key elements. With this bench, the team most certainly will be competing heavily for top rebound honors in the NBA. Keep in mind the starting lineup will include Ben Simmons, Dario Saric, Sergio Rodriguez, Gerald Henderson and either Jahlil Okafor or Joel Embiid, so they will be banging the boards as well.

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Lost in the discussion of how good will this team be this season is the fact that the bench of this team will be very good, particularly when considering they will be swapping in to face the bench of their opponents. Will the starters win 30 games this season? They may not need to. A significant portion of the wins may come from the bench. As long as they bang the boards, it’s definitely doable. And man, this bench can bang the boards.