With Joel Embiid back in the lineup, the Philadelphia 76ers are now able to have a more well-rounded rotation that is almost never sapped of any reliable source of scoring. But even before he made his return after an appendectomy, the coaching staff actually made a tough decision with respect to the usual loop. A casualty of such shift is none other than Dominick Barlow, who has seen his playing time get reduced to a minimum in the playoffs.
After starting in 59 out of 71 games in the regular season, Barlow has averaged just 9.5 minutes per outing in the playoffs. He even received one DNP through the first five games of Philly's first-round series against Boston. However, this development is actually something which a lot of people should have seen coming.
Barlow was one of the biggest pleasant surprises for the 76ers this season –– there is no arguing that. No one expected him to start in the majority of the games in this campaign, especially since he was a two-way player for the most part. However, it seems like the honeymoon phase is now over for him as the team learns a lesson painfully obvious to everyone.
Dominick Barlow has fallen out of favor in the rotation but the 76ers should have seen it coming
Barlow essentially functioned as a Swiss Army knife of some sorts for the 76ers in their opening group. He was a rangy and mobile defender as a big man, and his ability to latch onto perimeter players gave the team more resistance on the defensive end. On offense, while he was not really a scorer, he was efficient enough as a finisher and passable as a connector.
However, the main reason why his playing time dwindled as the season entered its latter phases was the fact that his skill set was quite tricky to integrate next to the team's stars, especially in a playoff setting. With Embiid missing time, it was simply not feasible for Nick Nurse to keep playing him to another traditional big man like Andre Drummond or Adem Bona, who both did not have sufficient juice on the scoring end to soften Barlow's lack of shot creation.
The fact that he was also a non-shooter complicated his bid for more playing time in the playoffs. Playing Boston, a team which favors the three-point shot, was always going to be a death knell for a configuration that featured someone who was negligible outside the paint.
The script could still be flipped if the 76ers advance in the playoffs and they draw a more favorable matchup that would enable them to trot Barlow out more, but for now, there is simply no reason to deploy him on the court.
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