Trade deadline a chemistry experiment
The 76ers could use some upgrades by the March 25 NBA trade deadline, especially to their bench.
They would benefit from president of basketball operations Daryl Morey adding a stretch power forward and a guard capable of initiating the offense, scoring and defending wings to increase the chances of advancing deeper in the playoffs. You could also make the case for a more productive starting small forward.
But Sixers coach Doc Rivers has been around long enough to know that more than just increasing the talent level is involved.
Rivers likes his team, and the players seem to enjoy playing together. Altering that balance can be a bit tricky.
“Chemistry is something you work on every day, talk about every day,” said Rivers prior to Monday night’s 130-114 victory over the Indiana Pacers. “You sell the roles of each player. You give that player a lot of credit for playing his role. It’s not by accident.
“It’s funny [because] sometimes when you get it, you know you kind of have it [but] you’re not sure exactly why or how it stays. And you darn sure want to keep it.”
Skill and ability are undeniably important. But how players from other teams would fit on the Eastern Conference-leading Sixers’ roster has to be factored into the equation.
“Trades are very tenuous,” Rivers said. “I would say most of the best trades we’ve all made in this league are the ones we haven’t made in a lot of cases, and then we’ve made some good ones where the talent outrides the chemistry. I would say at the deadline that’s what we’ll all be thinking about.”
Here’s what else we learned Monday:
Plenty of scoring in reserve
The bench has let the Sixers down on a number of occasions this season. Monday wasn’t one of them.
The reserves, led by Shake Milton’s game-high 26 points and Furkan Korkmaz’s 19, tallied a season-high 67 points against the Pacers. And that was with Mike Scott starting in place of injured power forward Tobias Harris, who missed his second straight game with a right knee contusion.
“When those two play well off our bench, we’re pretty tough,” Rivers said. “We’re still working with that group, trying to figure out what we can run that fits us the best.”
Milton said ball movement was a big reason for the second unit’s success versus Indiana.
“I just think the ball was hopping and everybody was getting a feel for it,” Milton said. “We played team basketball and everybody was moving. That’s what Coach wants.”
When the second unit is so productive, it allows Rivers to play four or five of the reserves at a time. He doesn’t have to mix and match with the starters and the first group isn’t forced to play as many minutes.
“It’s great when we can put our bench together,” Rivers said.
Say it is so [with] Joe
The Sixers sent rookie guard Isaiah Joe down to the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League on Sunday, one week after Rivers said “we’re going with Isaiah” in place of Korkmaz in his 10-man rotation.
What changed?
Rivers explained Monday that Joe simply wasn’t playing enough minutes in Philadelphia and didn’t want him to have a week of rest due to the All-Star break following Wednesday’s home date with the league-leading Utah Jazz. The Sixers won’t play again until March 11 in Chicago.
“We felt like we got to get these guys some minutes,” Rivers said. “We got to get them playing on the floor. I think he can only benefit [from playing] there.”
The plan is for Joe to play in the Blue Coats’ final two regular-season games in the Orlando bubble and then probably in the G League playoffs too.
Joe, a second-round pick out of Arkansas, is averaging 4.3 points and 12 minutes in 20 games with the Sixers this season. He’s hitting 38.3% of his 3-point attempts.
“He won’t be down long,” Rivers said. “We’re going to need him.”