Sixers
Say what you will about Joel Embiid being unavailable for Game 2 on Wednesday night, or the Sixers shooting 21% from the floor during the fourth quarter, but the one problem that can’t be fixed is that they have little to work with on the bench.
Quentin Grimes is the de facto 6th man, playing 22.4 minutes per game in these playoffs and averaging 7.1 PPG. They’ll go to one of Andre Drummond or Adem Bona to spell Embiid, OR, in the case of Game 2, put one in the starting lineup and bring the other off the bench. They both wound up in foul trouble and the Sixers turned to Dominick Barlow late, who played some really nice high-energy glue minutes to help keep this thing close.
Otherwise, there’s nobody to turn to, unless Nick Nurse wants to give Justin Edwards a run, and that’s naturally pushed the Jared McCain discourse back to the surface.
For what it’s worth, McCain is only averaging 5.3 minutes and 3 points per game during these playoffs. But that’s more because the Oklahoma City Thunder are a wagon and they’re going to Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso, Jaylin Williams, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins in addition to McCain. He played 15 minutes in Game 1 against the Lakers but only logged 21 minutes in three games against the Suns.
The Sixers aren’t the Thunder, and can’t go 10 deep in the conference semifinals, so McCain would be getting minutes against the Knicks, especially with Embiid out. Tyrese Maxey played 47 high-usage minutes on Wednesday night and couldn’t buy a bucket in the fourth. Paul George played 43 minutes and VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr. 40 each. Nurse didn’t bring a guard or a wing off the bench besides Grimes. Even Cam Payne, if he had managed to stay healthy, could have spelled Maxey for two minutes at some point in the second half.
It’s frustrating because here the Sixers are once again, with a chance to get out of the second round for the first time since George W. Bush was a first-year president. And yet they have little depth because they decided to punt at the trade deadline, and do nothing to improve the team.
Say what you will about McCain – maybe he’s the guy, maybe not. Maybe he would be too much of a defensive liability to play against this Knicks team, but if not him, you needed another body, and the Sixers don’t have that. Coaches always trim their rotations in the second round, but the Sixers are slimmer than a Hollywood celebrity on Ozempic.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team’s 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University.
email – k.kinkead@sportradar.com