The Philadelphia 76ers are doing just fine to start the season, touting a winning record despite not being close to full strength yet. Having said that, they have cooled off since their rousing 4-0 start, having lost a slew of very winnable games as of late.
Still, it is worth noting that the 76ers still do not have a clear-cut answer off the bench when it comes to their backup center spot. The coaching staff has vacillated between resurgent veteran big man Andre Drummond and sophomore center Adem Bona, playing it by ear as to which one to mobilize on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, that has left rookie Johni Broome stuck on the bench.
In fact, Broome has been assigned to the Delaware Blue Coats, the team's G-League affiliate, although he has been going back and forth from there to the 76ers. While that is not out of the ordinary for a second-round pick, the 76ers could have found a much better use for him had the coaching staff given him a bit of a run early on and allowed him to show his calling card which varies from his fellow big men on the roster –– scoring.
Johni Broome would have helped the 76ers bench be even more impactful
After being at the absolute bottom of the league in bench scoring last season, the 76ers have now climbed to 15th as of writing in that department. Part and parcel of that uptick should be credited to Quentin Grimes, who is having a very impressive start to the season for Philly.
Their scoring in the frontcourt, however, has been rather nonexistent off the bench. Now, with Trendon Watford moving to the starting unit, the 76ers will get one less player who can go get a bucket in their second group.
Broome, whose main selling point coming out of college was his scoring in the high and low post, could have made some difference in that regard had he been given more court time to exhibit his skills on offense. During the Summer League and in the preseason, he even flashed some three-point shooting touch, which is something that none of their big men aside from Joel Embiid can provide.
Of course, it is still way too early to call this anything close to a huge mistake, but the 76ers will be able to better address some of their issues when it comes to varying their scoring attack by giving Broome more run from time to time. Hopefully, that materializes sooner rather than later, especially when Embiid is on his usual resting cycles.