With the official start of the season only 17 days away, we got a first look at this new Philadelphia 76ers team.
After an offseason filled with changes, we finally got to see how the Philadelphia 76ers‘ starters together on one side and the second unit on the other side. With no surprise, the Sixers’ starters (Blue) won the Blue x White scrimmage; their star power and length gave the White team a lot of trouble on both sides. DEFENSE was the name of the game for both teams.
The Blue Team: Joel Embiid, Al Horford, Tobias Harris, Josh Richardson, Ben Simmons, Raul Neto, Haywood Highsmith, Norvel Pelle, Isaiah Miles and Furkan Korkmaz.
The White team: Kyle O’Quinn, Mike Scott, James Ennis, Trey Burke, Matisse Thybulle, Zhaire Smith, Jonah Bolden, Christ Koumadje, Shake Milton and Marial Shayok.
Some notable events from this afternoon are that Joel Embiid only played the first half due to load management. Matisse Thybulle was probably the best player on the court. We did not get to see Simmons shoot an outside shot. Horford seemed to fit in well. Josh Richardson got very limited touches and looked like he was playing the Tobias Harris role from last year.
Trey Burke had many situations to score, but his shot just didn’t seem to fall. Raul Neto, the man fighting for that backup PG job with Burke, made the offense flow better than Burke did. Getting the ball moving and playing off ball is Neto’s game. They both seemed to play at a very high intensity when defending each other, and fighting for the PG job between each other is a flashback from their Utah days, when Neto got the better of Burke.
Another player making a case for backup point guard is Shake Milton. He probably played the best game out of the three, demonstrating his speed and ability to score.
Three-point shooting seemed to be a bit of a concern throughout the quarters, especially the bench players, who got a lot of open looks that just didn’t fall.
Scott and Ennis both seemed underwhelming, but they are already both established bench players in the NBA and don’t have much to prove, which might explain their performance.
In the end, a scrimmage doesn’t mean much. It may or may not show what these guys will bring to the table when the NBA begins. Their official preseason begins on Oct. 8 against the Guangzhou Loong Lions.