Guard rotation spins toward McConnell
PHILADELPHIA >> The 76ers’ gradual return to a more experienced point guard rotation took another step Monday when T.J. McConnell, not Markelle Fultz, backed up Ben Simmons in the second half of a 119114 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
Though Brett Brown explained the sudden revival of McConnell as an attempt to spark the Sixers after a “flat” first half, he stopped short of saying that the move was a temporary fix.
“I don’t know,” Brown said. “I don’t know.”
Fultz began the season as the Sixers’ starting offguard, yet had been playing almost exclusively as a point guard in the second half. Though healthy, McConnell had not played at all in any of the previous three games.
But after playing a nondescript 7:05 in the first half, Fultz was rested in the second. Instead, McConnell played 8:31, providing two points and one assist. Given chances to stress that Fultz would return to his usual spot in the rotation, Brown passed, saying it would be up to a variety of factors.
When?
“When I think it through deeper, and look at tape and see who we are playing, the next opponent,” he said. “All the things I should do.”
Fultz was 0-for-2 with an assist and three fouls in his brief first-half appearance, and was not alarmed by his second-half rest.
“You definitely want to go out there and compete,” he said. “I am a competitor. But at the end of the day, Coach made a decision to do that, so I have to live with it. My mindset is when I step on the floor, I go out to play. But once he goes out there, I root for him. It’s not like I am pouting on the bench or anything. I want to get out there. I am rooting for my teammates.”
Fultz and McConnell have a deep friendship. Neither has created a stir when benched.
“It’s not even a friendship,” McConnell said. “He’s more like a brother to me. The relationship we have is bigger than basketball. When he is doing well, I am supporting him. And when I am doing well, he is supporting me.”
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For the second consecutive year, a 76ers rookie has been injured during a temporary G-League assignment. Forward Jonah Bolden sustained a “small cortical crack in the proximal fibula” of his right leg, according to the Sixers, after a collision with an opponent in a minor-league game Saturday.
Last season, the Sixers lost Furkan Korkmaz for most of the season after he’d injured a knee while with their Delaware minorleague team.
Bolden will be re-evaluated in 10 days, the Sixers said.
The Sixers liberally place young players on the GLeague shuttle, usually for the purposes of just getting in an official practice with professional players. But considering the Bolden and Korkmaz injuries, the plan could be backfiring.
“Does it give us cold feet that we are sending players down there and they could get injured?” Brown said. “No … and like an aggressive no.
“They have to be down there so they can play. Swinging a towel doesn’t make you get better. And all day, every day, we will support that program and put people like Jonah, understanding that risk, in a situation where he can play basketball.”
Bolden was averaging 1.7 points in six games for the Sixers.
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Not that it has mattered in the boxscore or that it has affected his playing time, but Joel Embiid continues to battle a sore hand.
“Does his hand concern me?” Brown said. “Yes, it does. It’s Joel Embiid. And we all get the importance that he represents to our program. I hope to be able to say at some point to responsibly, perhaps, give him a game off. But I don’t know when that will happen. It’s in discussion. And he is always on my mind.”
Sore or not, Embiid went for 33 points and 17 rebounds in 35:32 Monday.
••• Wilson Chandler, continuing to return slowly from season-long hamstring issues, was on a
27-minute limit Monday. “How do you come up with that?” Brown asked out loud. “But that’s what they have come up with.”
Since the arrival of Jimmy Butler and the reconstruction of the rotation, Chandler has been starting. Monday, he played
31:17 and scored two points. “So 27 minutes is the number that was given, and I’ll take it,” Brown said. “I’ll take every one of them.”
Previously, Chandler had been on 10-minute and
15-minute restrictions.
••• When he arrived at his Suns locker, Richaun Holmes found a framed Sixers jersey, No. 22, a memento from his three seasons in Philadelphia. The center was traded to the Suns in a July cash deal.
“I’m enjoying myself,” Holmes said. “It’s how it goes. I had some good years here. It’s a first-class organization. So I was grateful that I had the opportunity to play for them.”