Philadelphia 76ers need to experiment with point guard depth

Despite only being two games into this season, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown should be open to experimentation with the point guard rotation

The Philadelphia 76ers are starting off on the right foot, the team has a 2-0 record so far and a lot of the things that head coach Brett Brown has implemented has appeared to work. However, one thing that he should be willing to tinker with a bit is the point guard rotation.

In the first two games of the season, Brown has used starting shooting guard Josh Richardson as the primary backup point guard. In 70 minutes of play thus far this season, Richardson has seen 24.0 percent of his minutes coming at the point guard spot, which is a career high.

Despite the Sixers winning, Richardson has had some struggles playing the position. He’s shooting a career low in both the field goal percentage at 33.0 percent and 3-point percentage at 0.0 percent. Considering he shot 41.2 percent from the floor and 35.7 percent from deep last year, this is steep decline and part of it has to be attributed to his duties as the backup point guard.

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While Richardson is averaging the second highest assist rate of his career at 4.0 per game, he’s also averaging a career high in turnovers at 2.5 per game. Surely Richardson has playmaking abilities, but having him play at the point guard position for long stretches is taking a toll on his overall game.

It’s understandable that Brown has Richardson in that role as he’s the only player that’s a proven defender that can relieve starter Ben Simmons. The Sixers are building a defensive identity and having Richardson play point guard in Simmons’ absence is only logical in cultivating that identity.

Brown did a similar thing last season with Jimmy Butler, but that was only near the end of the regular season and in the playoffs. Having Richardson do it this early in the season could lead to fatigue before the the postseason. Richardson should be at option at point guard, but not now. He shouldn’t be called upon for those duties until later in the regular season and/or playoffs.

The Sixers already have gotten off to a good start and the other rotational players have proven to be, at bare minimum, capable defenders. It appears that Raul Neto is the next point guard on Brown’s depth chart as he’s logged seven minutes thus far. Neto is more of a traditional point guard that could help run the second unit’s offensive sets, despite him not being an above average defender.

Then there’s Trey Burke, who hasn’t seen a minute so far this season. He could serve as a spark plug of offensive off the bench, despite his inefficiencies. Brown could even turn to Shake Milton if he wanted to, but Milton’s more of a secondary playmaker than a point guard at this stage of his career.

Regardless of who gets minutes at the point guard spot, it’s clear that it has negatively impacting Richardson’s offensive output and could continue to do so, as long as he’s in that role. Keeping Richardson fresh for postseason is the most important thing and having him run the backup point guard position isn’t helping in that regard.

It’s early enough in the season for Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown to experiment with the backup point guard role. If he finds none of the traditional point guards on the bench can handle the role, then he should turn to Richardson or ask general manager Elton Brand to find one capable of doing so in free agency or in the trade market.