Doc Rivers says Sixers have tweaked their offense with Ben Simmons out
When a team is dealing with the absence of such a major piece like the Philadelphia 76ers just recently went through with Ben Simmons, there will predictably be some change in how they run things without that player.
The Sixers have always been built around Simmons, Joel Embiid, and recently Tobias Harris in an effort to chase a championship in the East. However, with Simmons absent from the team amid his holdout, the Sixers moved forward with some changes to the offense.
The changes make a ton of sense. They can’t play the same way with Tyrese Maxey or Shake Milton at point guard the same way they played with Simmons. Those two young guards are completely different players and as they do welcome Simmons back to the team, he will need to show coach Doc Rivers some important aspects before they can throw him out there in a game.
“Just conditioning, timing, rhythm, we’ve been together for three weeks so we’ve established a good rhythm,” said Rivers at practice on Monday. “The more he’s in, the more he does his work in our offensive stuff earlier, because we’ve built from last year, but we’ve tweaked a lot of stuff, but it’s easy to pick up and that’s good for him. Especially for him.”
In the half-court offense in the past, the Sixers would have Simmons set up in the dunker spot in order to give Embiid enough space to operate and do his work in the low post. However, under Maxey and Milton, the Sixers are obviously not going to throw those two down there. Things change a bit.
“Not a lot, but just some things with Ben being out, you have to see the floor spacing and how we’re going to operate,” said Danny Green. “Ben and Tyrese are two different guys, Shake, two different guys. You’re not gonna play those guys in the dunker as much. Just figuring that out and post spacing with Joel with those guys and how we’re gonna slash, cut, when to slash, cut when guys are spaced.”
Now, hings will have to be adjusted again with Simmons’ return, but not as much considering Simmons has played with a majority of the guys on the roster.
“It’s not that difficult,” Green added. “He’s been here his entire career. We only had two or three weeks without him, some of these guys have played with him for years, our offense hasn’t changed a bunch. It’s predicated on those guys. Him, Tobias, Joel, it hasn’t changed much. All you do is fit right in whenever he’s ready.”
It remains to be seen if Simmons will be able to play on Wednesday against the New Orleans Pelicans on the road, but at the moment, Philadelphia believes they are in a good spot. They just have to reintegrate Simmons a bit more with the team.
“It’ll grow, it’ll come back,” Rivers finished. “I’m not that concerned right now with it. They’re interchanging, it’s coming, and it just takes time. Chemistry’s huge and overall, I think our chemistry is phenomenal right now and we want to keep it growing.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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