Philadelphia 76ers: Team Joel Embiid vs. Team Al Horford

The Philadelphia 76ers apparently have Team Joel and Team Al.

Recently, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown spoke with reports covering a wide range of subjects. One of which was the co-existence of his two centers in Joel Embiid and Al Horford. According to Keith Pompey of Phily.com, Brown had this to say.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Brown chose to bench Horford in February. It became clear that the two big men proved throughout the course of the season that they couldn’t co-exist, especially when non-shooting point guard Ben Simmons was also on the court.

Based on the comments above, it seems that Brown took time during this hiatus from play to figure out a solution. The solution is pretty straight up, there are incarnations of this team where lineups built around each center and one built around both.

Team Al

Out of the three “teams” mentioned in Brown’s quote, “Team Al “seems like the one that would get the least amount of playing time. This is mostly due to the fact that Horford is more than likely coming off the bench and based on past comments from Brown stating that his goal for Embiid is to play 38 minutes a night during the postseason.

With that in mind, that would indicate that Horford would only get about 10 minutes per game on the court without sharing it with Embiid. Below is a potential lineup of what “Team Al” could look like.

1. Alec Burks
2. Shake Milton
3. Josh Richardson
4. Tobias Harris
5. Horford

While surely Simmons could and probably will appear on “Team Al”, this lineup maximized Horford’s skill set. Simmons takes the ball out of Horford’s hands as a playmaker and he clogs up the paint for the big man as well. Burks plays to Horford’s strengths as a pick-and-roll guard.

Horford’s a pretty solid outlet passer and this lineup is built to be efficient in an uptempo offense looking for baskets in transition. On top of that, both Burks and Milton are pretty good ball handlers in the pick-and-roll which is also a strength of Horford.

This lineup allows Horford to run the offense just like he use to back with the Boston Celtics. It may only be for roughly ten minutes per game, but this lineup can be pretty effective for Philly.

Team Joel

If it hasn’t been obvious for most of the season, Embiid is a much different big man than Horford. Embiid is a bruiser inside of the paint that has a nice jumper. He’s not the passer that Horford is either. With the fact that Brown hopes to play Embiid around 38 minutes per night, there’s a good chance that he sees several different lineups around him.

The projected starting five should be Simmons, Milton, Richardson, Harris, and Embiid, however, that lineup doesn’t necessarily maximize Embiid’s offensive skills. The lineup below I believe maximizes Embiid’s strength’s as a post-up player.

1. Milton
2. Richardson
3. Furkan Korkmaz
4. Harris
5. Embiid

Switching out Korkmaz for Simmons is purely because Simmons clogs up the paint, whereas Korkmaz is arguably the team’s biggest threat from deep which opens up the floor for Embiid. While Korkmaz is a liability on defense, Embiid’s rim protection can help cover up Korkmaz’s weak defense.

It was tempting to put Mike Scott in place of Harris due to Scott’s sole purpose on offense is to make 3-pointers. However, I already wrote in the past that I don’t believe Scott will make the playoff rotation and I hold that to still be true. It should also be noted that Harris isn’t a scrub when it comes to hitting 3-pointers either.

“Team Joel” is full of 3-point shooters that should help space the floor for Embiid to do work in the post. Outside of Josh Richardson, who’s struggled from the 3-point line this season but is solid from the arc for his career, Harris, Milton and Korkmaz has shot over 36.0 percent from deep this year.

Integration of both

This next lineup is what Brown wants to be an integration of the two big men. Now Brown could decide to go with his old starting lineup that was: Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford, and Embiid. That lineup had an 11-8 record.

However, having Simmons who refuses to take 3-pointers next to Horford and Embiid who aren’t great 3-point shooters, doesn’t help the Sixers. The lineup below could help maximize big men’s strengths.

1. Milton
2. Richardson
3. Harris
4. Horford
5. Embiid

If this lineup looks familiar it should, this is a starting lineup that won Philly 2 out of three games it started in. Horford and Embiid aren’t a perfect fit, but having two really solid 3-point shooters in Harris and Milton is a plus, plus a solid two-way wing in Richardson helps alot.

Obviously, this lineup is far from perfect, but considering the roster that Brown has to work with this probably the best he can do. Having two centers in a lineup will have a hard time being effective in today’s NBA, as long as Simmons isn’t in it then it has a chance to be efficient.

These are just hypothetical lineups that Brown could use during the NBA restart. However, it’s a good starting point for the Philadelphia 76ers, even if the “Team Al” and “Team Joel” don’t end up looking like what I have mapped out in this article.