Philadelphia 76ers: With Jimmy Butler, Markelle Fultz needs to move back to the bench

After the Jimmy Butler trade, it’s clear that the Philadelphia 76ers need to start bringing Markelle Fultz off the bench again.

The Philadelphia 76ers have finally acquired their elusive third star. Early Saturday morning, ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed to trade Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Jerryd Bayless and a 2022 second round pick for Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton.

Jimmy Butler is undoubtedly the most talented player in the deal. Getting him for Covington and Saric without giving up any other major assets is, in a vacuum, a solid deal. However, the question of fit must be asked.

A key point that seems to have been underreported (at least in the early hours of this breaking news) is that Covington and Saric are the Philadelphia 76ers’ two best shooters in the starting lineup. For their career, they shoot 35.9 and 35.1 percent from deep, respectively. Covington is inconsistent and Saric has been slumping lately, but we know they’re solid shooters.

Butler, on the other hand, is only a 34.1 percent shooter for his career. To be fair, he’s improved over the years, and has averaged 35.5 percent in Minnesota, but he takes significantly fewer attempts per game than Covington or Saric (3.6 per game to their 5.9 and 5.4, respectively).

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Regardless, Butler will obviously be taking Covington’s spot in the lineup. The most common lineup adjustment I’ve heard pretty much everywhere is to bring in J.J. Redick as the new fifth starter in place of Saric. Whether you call Butler and Redick forwards and Ben Simmons a point guard, or Simmons moves to power forward and Markelle Fultz slides to the point , it’s the same lineup.

This article was at least open-minded enough to claim that Wilson Chandler or Mike Muscala could take the fifth spot, and that’s a good point. However, I am baffled that no one has yet suggested what seems to be obvious to me: bring Markelle Fultz off the bench.

Markelle Fultz was drafted to be the third star, the guy we could turn to at the end of games who could create a good shot for himself. We expected him to be a good defender on the other end as well. Butler is already the player we wanted Fultz to be, so Fultz should be the one who he replaces.

The shooting is really the key though. Ben Simmons can’t shoot. Joel Embiid is below average. I’ll be charitable and call Butler average. Those three cannot share the floor with another below-average shooter. If you thought the spacing was bad before, imagine how it would look with four poor shooters out there, especially in the modern NBA where many teams have full five-man lineups where everyone can shoot.

There’s also the matter of balancing the bench. Starting Fultz and Redick leaves Landry Shamet as the only bench guard, save from the banished T.J. McConnell (I’ve loved McConnell for years, but shooting is just such a premium right now, and the issue just got even more pressing).

Down low, the Philadelphia 76ers would have Mike Muscala, Amir Johnson, Jonah Bolden and the recently-acquired Justin Patton, all of whom could use some minutes. Wilson Chandler would presumably get all of the backup minutes at the three, but he’s probably best at the four. Having four or five players jostling for two backup positions while you have one rookie guard as the backup at two positions is not ideal.

My suggestion: Start Simmons, Redick, Butler, Muscala and Embiid. Muscala is a career 37.6 percent shooter from deep, and he’s done a solid Ersan Ilyasova impression this year. He’s a classic stretch big, and that’s all we need right now.

Off the bench, Brett Brown would have access to a nice lineup of Fultz, Shamet, Chandler, Bolden, and Johnson. I Know he staggers his minutes so that lineup wouldn’t actually ever play together, but the idea of having a solid backup at each position is critical. McConnell, Furkan Korkmaz, and Zhaire Smith (when healthy) could eventually factor in if there were some injuries.

Some of my colleagues at TSS think Amir Johnson should be cut out of the rotation, and I can’t say I disagree (due again to shooting issues). Brown often goes to a nine-man rotation, so having Fultz, Shamet, Chandler, and Bolden as the main backups should be fine, as all can play at least two positions. When Justin Patton comes back, maybe we’ll see what we have in him too.

I can’t say exactly what the back end of the rotation will look like down the line, but what I can say is that Markelle Fultz shouldn’t be starting anymore, at least until he recovers his shot.