Philadelphia 76ers need more shot creators in second unit

For the most part, the Philadelphia 76ers front office has done a good job improving the bench this season, but it still has one weakness.

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand has done a good job filling out the roster in a lot of respects. He has created a great depth chart at the center position. He essentially flipped Jimmy Butler for Josh Richardson and Al Horford. There appears to be solid 3-point shooting coming off the bench, however one area that he has failed in is adding enough shot creation in the second unit.

The 76ers had the same problem last season and head coach Brett Brown hid this issue by staggering his rotations. This allowed Philly to always have two or three of the following starters on the floor: Ben Simmons, J.J. Redick, Butler, Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid. For the most part it worked with Simons, Redick, Butler and Harris being essential for creating offense off the dribble.

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Sadly, that won’t work as well this season. This is due to the fact that the Sixers starting lineups will most likely look like: Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Embiid. Of that group only Simmons, Richardson and Harris are shot creators and Simmons still hasn’t proven to be a jumper shooter, which makes it more difficult. There needs to be more shot creation off the bench to help offset the loss of Redick and Butler.

Pending any additional moves, the Sixers bench has very minimal shot creators. Zhaire Smith is an athletic slasher. Matisse Thybulle, James Ennis and two-way contract player Marial Shayok are 3-and-D players. Mike Scott and Jonah Bolden are stretch big men. Kyle O’Quinn and two-way contract player Norvel Pelle are defensive centers. Overall this is solid depth, but there’s only two players that have any shot creations skills.

Raul Neto and Shake Milton are the only players off the bench that could be considered shot creators, but there’s still questions surrounding both in that regard. Neto does his best in the pick-and-roll and isn’t really a shot creator on a regular basis outside of that. Milton isn’t a point guard at this time in his career and will be buried on the wing depth chart behind Smith, Thybulle and Ennis. Milton is still a raw prospect and shouldn’t be relied upon this season as a shot creator.

Luckily for Philly, they still have two open roster spots and there’s still some options in the free agent market. I recently wrote about Trey Burke being a legit option that should be signed if possible. He’d help in the shot creation department and would help fix the point guard depth issues with Neto. Outside of Carmelo Anthony, who shouldn’t even be consider as a free agent option, Burke is arguably the best shot creator remaining on the market.

Veteran wing Vince Carter could be an option, though his defense may make it hard for Brown to play him consistantly. In the past, I wrote about veteran combo Jamal Crawford being a shot creating option of the bench as well. Like Carter, Crawford’s defense would make it hard to play him. Between the two, Carter is the better option at this point.

The Philadelphia 76ers don’t have one solid option off the bench for shot creation. Brand needs to fill that need before the season begins or the bench unit will struggle on offense at times.