Sixers: 3 lineup combinations worthy of experimentation

Sixers lineup combination: Joel + Shooting

• Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, Danny Green, Seth Curry, George Hill

Embiid is one of the few players who can sustain a lineup consisting of a star and four shooters. Even the most one-dimensional group of floor spacers will typically find success with Embiid in the middle. He’s a one-man defensive system, and a one-man wrecking crew on offense. As his passing continues to improve, the four-out groups around Embiid will only get more successful.

A common theme in this article — however unintentional when I set out to write — has been working George Hill into lineup combinations new and old. Hill is one of the best shooters on this team. Possibly the best outside Curry. He is, statistically speaking, a “shooter,” but gives the lineup a source of playmaking that would otherwise be absent.

Hill can run pick-and-rolls and DHOs with Embiid, as can Harris and Curry. Green is the most prolific shooter on the team in terms of volume, so he would be right at home on the wing. Hill would be the only member of this five-man group shooting below 40 percent from deep on the season, and he’s not far from that mark.

Embiid is at his most deadly with space around him. When it comes time to mix and match groups, there is reason to believe Simmons can successfully arm second-unit groups when Embiid sits. Hill sliding into this group would place the Sixers’ four best shooters around the NBA’s most dominant interior threat. One could only expect favorable results.