Philadelphia 76ers: Why the bench continues to hold back the team

The Philadelphia 76ers were swept out of this year’s playoffs by their conference rivals, the Boston Celtics. A glowing disparity between the teams was the bench depth and continuity, factors that continue to hold back the Sixers.

About a year ago, I started writing for The Sixer Sense and prior to the start of the NBA season my first article posited if Raul Neto or Trey Burke would win the backup point guard position and could provide serviceable playoff minutes. Fast forward almost a year and that question was not as applicable.

Burke had been waived by the 76ers in February, then subsequently picked up by the Dallas Mavericks. In the Mavericks first round playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers, Burke averaged over 12 points per game and was a more than serviceable backup for Luka Doncic against a top-tier defensive team. On the other hand, Neto was the third-string point guard behind Shake Milton, and when he did get playing time, he left much to be desired.

Now I know a lot of crazy things have happened in the past year that were unpredictable, but this one was clear as day and could have been avoided. Trey Burke is a walking bucket and proved that he could provide the scoring for this team’s second unit.

Yet, the Sixers effectively chose Neto over him when roster constraints forced one of the players to be waived. This is just one example of the Sixers front office repeatedly making poor personnel decisions which lead to a weakened bench that either does not have the skill or the chemistry to play in the playoffs.

Brett Brown had to go, because if they didn’t fire him they were going to have to move on from either Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid. It is worth giving a new coach a shot with these two young superstars to see if he/she can make them reach their joint potential. But that is not all that needs changing. The bench needs to be fixed and it starts with finding positional backups to Simmons and Embiid that are able to take on a bigger playoff load when called upon.

The compilation of an entire bench of wing players will not get this team to the next level. Either the front office needs to correct the bench personnel or the front office needs some rearranging itself.