Doc Rivers doesn’t mind publicly sharing his thoughts on roster deficiencies.
After a second-round playoff loss to the Hawks ended his first year as Sixers head coach, he called the team’s lack of depth behind Tobias Harris “one of the biggest concerns.” President of basketball operations Daryl Morey subsequently signed Georges Niang to a free-agent deal.
With under two days remaining before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade deadline, Rivers was again direct about the specific sort of addition he’d like.
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Shake Milton has been out because of a back contusion since Jan. 3. Seth Curry played Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center against the Suns, but he’s been hampered lately by back and ankle issues. He shot 1 for 9 from the floor in a 114-109 Sixers loss that included 14 Furkan Korkmaz minutes. Two-way player Myles Powell even got a crack at playing backup point guard last week in a shorthanded defeat to the Wizards.
Ben Simmons, meanwhile, hasn’t appeared in a game for the 32-22 Sixers since he requested a trade during the offseason and told the team he wasn’t mentally ready to play.
“It’s tough,” Rivers said. “We have no choice. We have to get another guard. We just do. Even if Furk and Shake … we need a point guard. But they don’t grow on trees, as you know. But the first half we got away with it. We actually stretched the lead.
“It’s funny, I told (assistant coach Sam Cassell), ‘If I’m the Suns, when I come back out in the second half with that lineup, I’m picking up full court.’ And (Elfrid) Payton picked up and changed the tempo of the game. There’s not a lot you can do with it. I thought we handled it well, it just took us out of our stuff.”
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The Sixers did add a guard at last year’s deadline, acquiring George Hill. Though that move didn’t have the desired postseason impact, it seems Rivers would be on board with a similar player.
“I mean, we may do nothing, obviously,” he said. “And you can only do something if there’s something there. That’s clearly something we’re looking for — that and size.”
The size component is linked with rebounding, another area Rivers has acknowledged as a weakness. The Sixers, per Cleaning the Glass, rank last in offensive rebounding percentage and 20th in defensive rebounding percentage. Simmons isn’t a world-class rebounder, but his absence has led the Sixers to start the small backcourt of Tyrese Maxey and Curry. The team’s identity is different without Simmons — fewer turnovers created; not as many transition chances; leaning more on Joel Embiid’s all-around greatness, including his improved passing; more minutes and offensive opportunities for Curry and Maxey.
None of the above is revelatory at this point. If the Sixers make a big move — landing James Harden would match that description, of course — it will all be recalibrated. And if they don’t, the question of whether the 25-year-old Simmons will sit out an entire season becomes awfully pertinent.
Embiid was asked whether he'd feel a responsibility to bring Simmons back into the fold in such a scenario.
“No,” he said. “Like I’ve been saying since the season started, I’m happy. Whoever that wants to play is welcome. … But we’ve got guys that want to be here, that show up every single night. I don’t know what other type of word I can use, but I get paid to bring results and win games. I don’t get paid to babysit Tyrese. I get paid to challenge him to try to help me win games. I get paid to do the same thing with Tobias and all the other guys, and they respond to it every single time — just the same way they challenge me. They know that it’s never personal.
“I always go at them and they always go back at me, because we’ve all got the same goal. We want to win. Anybody’s welcome to play. If you want to be part of us, I’m sure everybody’s going to be fine with it. But you’ve got to show up. You’ve got to want to be there. And I’m sure everybody’s going to accept whoever that is. To answer your question, no. I’m just worried about the guys that are here. And for the guys that are here, I’m going to challenge you and we’re going to challenge each other to be better and try to win a championship.”
Harris is currently one of the players working toward that aim with Embiid, though he knows all about deadline drama and unease. The Sixers traded for him, Boban Marjanovic and Mike Scott in the wee hours of Feb. 6, 2019.
He played a strong game Tuesday, scoring 30 points on 13-for-18 shooting, but Harris acknowledged he doesn’t just float above the inevitable noise.
“I’ll just be honest,” he said, “it’s one of those things … trade rumors are always kind of eerie for guys around the NBA. But in this situation, yeah, I was reading an article today and there were like five guys on the top-10 list to be moved ... whatever. Obviously, don’t get it twisted, that plays an impact on guys’ mental, psyche, focus — all the way down the line. We’ll see what happens.”
So no, Harris won’t spend the time before the deadline trying to manufacture blissful ignorance.
“For the next couple days, I’ll be refreshing (ESPN’s) Adrian Wojnarowski's tweets and (The Athletic’s Shams Charania), like everybody else. Sometimes those guys get it before we’ll get the call. That’s just what happens. I think everybody else is in that same position to be checking their phones to see what happens.”
Matisse Thybulle claimed he’ll take a much different approach.
“Read books, draw, go on walks. I’ll keep the (phone) ringer on just in case I get a call, but that’s about it,” Thybulle said.