Reason five – Developing players means playing time
Head coach Brett Brown admitted that the head coach needs to ensure players get live action to keep them refreshed and game-ready. When the team was young, and he worked tirelessly to ensure veteran power forward Carl Landry saw playing time, he was very open to his philosophy of getting players cycled onto the basketball court to prevent staleness.
But players are not seeing minutes this season. Well, some players are. The young and developing players are not. And perhaps that is by design. After all, the Philadelphia 76ers are giving a lot of playing time to their starting 5-lineup. Couple that with a 9-man rotation, and there are not slots in that lineup to grow players. But the team made a commitment to the prospects they drafted. When a player arrives to an NBA team, that commitment runs both ways. The player must work to the best of their ability. And the team will ensure that they get opportunity.
Need not be an either or
The Philadelphia 76ers have approached making a playing run as an either/or position rather than develop players. It need not be so. The Indiana Pacers have gotten hot and run 11 player rotations. That is a rotation the Philadelphia 76ers need to implement. Even if the time allotted to players like TLC or Anderson is no more than eight minutes, that is eight minutes of NBA game time these players will otherwise never get.
Next: NBA Playoffs today? Philadelphia 76ers face Cleveland Cavaliers
Yes, the Philadelphia 76ers are surprising some folks by threatening the NBA post-season. Not only will the Philadelphia 76ers get there, but they may climb all the way up to a 4-seed. Right now, they are a 6-seed but are very much in position to do better. Still, this is a very young team. And chucking all the younger players to the back of the bus and pushing all playing minutes upon players with expiring contracts seems, short-sighted at best. Hopefully, the lessons learned this season will benefit the team next year. The only way to ensure that is to play those on the roster who will be 76ers next season. Just show some TLC to TLC and it will work out that way.