The numbers game: must Philadelphia 76ers prune young players?

Make way for a new crop

To work through this exercise, we must project the 2018-2019 roster configuration as three thirds. First of all, one lineup is starters. Secondly, another lineup is veterans. And thirdly another lineup will be reserved for developing new players.

That is NOT to say that a veteran is the first player off the bench at all positions. In the case of a highly talented young player, like a Markelle Fultz, the younger player gets the spot starts and quality bench minutes – and may even compete for the starting role down the road.  That pretty much takes us to the visual depth chart where we examine the roster.

Roster review

First of all, let’s begin with the 2017-2018 roster from current players and see how this works:

Position                  Starter                     Veteran                  Developing Player

Center                     Joel Embiid              Amir Johnson(*)    Richaun Holmes
Power Forward    Dario Saric              Ersan Ilyasova(*)
Small Forward     Robert Covington  Justin Anderson    Furkan Korkmaz
Shooting Guard    J.J. Redick (*)           Marco Belinelli (*) /
Shooting Guard    ()                                 Jerryd Bayless      Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot
Point Guard          Ben Simmons         T.J. McConnell        Markelle Fultz

This season, the team has for expiring contracts indicated with a (*) symbol. Of that group, we project the team to look to retain Ersan Ilyasova, J.J. Redick, and Marco Belinelli to sustain veteran presence at key positions on the roster for next season. You can still see weakness at the four role, and excess at shooting guard even now.