Sixers Face Serious Rebounding Questions Without Joel Embiid
The Philadelphia 76ers limped through a victory against the Utah Jazz to distance themselves from an embarrassing home loss. They’re now 3-10 since Christmas in games without Joel Embiid. While…
The Philadelphia 76ers limped through a victory against the Utah Jazz to distance themselves from an embarrassing home loss. They’re now 3-10 since Christmas in games without Joel Embiid.
While any NBA team will struggle rebounding without such a dominant big man, the Sixers haven’t effectively developed ways to compete with their frontcourt depth behind the former MVP.
Sixers Struggle Rebounding
Nick Nurse has consistently emphasized the need to control the glass in recent weeks. The issues have only heightened.
The victorious Boston Celtics outrebounded the Sixers 59-37 on Sunday, an advantage boosted by an outrageous 19 offensive boards. Their 46.2% rate of offensive rebounds ranked in the 98th percentile of all NBA games this season.
“It obviously determined the game, without question… I come out of the game thinking we generated really good shots all night. We didn’t hit them. That was true too, but it wouldn’t have mattered if we hadn’t given up 30 second-chance points.”
-Nick Nurse
Photo by Arwen Clemans/Getty ImagesThe San Antonio Spurs similarly dominated the Sixers with a 56-40 rebounding margin on Tuesday. Victor Wembanyama toyed with Andre Drummond from the opening tip. The 7-foot-4 phenom only played 24 minutes to allow the stats to even out in garbage time.
Drummond, who’s handled the starter’s minutes, and Adem Bona, who’s played a backup role more often, haven’t adequately compensated for the absence of Embiid.
Would Nurse consider flipping the two backup centers?
“Listen, I think we need Drum… I think when we searched through a lot of the season of how we were going to do it, we liked especially (when) Bona comes in, and he gives us a different kind of schematic defensive look... Sometimes, the guys coming in (off the bench) kind of are comfortable playing there too. I don’t know. I think we could take another look at it.”
-Nick Nurse
Drummond in his 14th NBA season at age 32 isn’t the rebounder he once was. He failed to adapt to a changing veteran role in the 131-91 loss against San Antonio.
Bona has shown flashes of athleticism and the ability to protect the rim. However, he hasn’t consistently developed with the conviction the Sixers desperately need with Embiid on the sidelines and Drummond struggling.
Frontcourt Depth Against Utah Jazz
The Jazz traveled to Philadelphia with seven-footer Lauri Markkanen out of the lineup. The Sixers narrowly outrebounded their struggling opponent 43-42 after Nurse pulled the plug on Drummond in the starting lineup.
Adem Bona slid into the starting lineup. Embiid, Paul George, VJ Edgecombe, and Kelly Oubre Jr. all sat out, allowing Nurse to experiment with a unique starting lineup. He opted for size with Dominick Barlow and Trendon Watford next to Bona.
Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty ImagesThe trio helped the Sixers in a strong first quarter. Bona teed up Tom McGinnis for a few “Two-hand jam!” calls later in the game. He finished 6-for-8 from the floor with 12 points. However, he’ll still need to improve his rebounding to become the primary backup if or when the Sixers have a healthy Joel Embiid available.
Jabari Walker stole the show from each of the three big men in impressive bench minutes. The 6-foot-7 forward dropped 22 points and grabbed 10 boards. He forced Nurse’s hand to play him 28 minutes, more than both Barlow and Watford.
Beating a tanking bottom-feeder by four points won’t change the outlook on a vulnerable Sixers season or the team's rebounding issues. The Jazz still also grabbed 13 offensive rebounds at a rate in the 79th percentile of NBA games this season.
However, Nurse acknowledged after the game that some of his group of less established big men have an open opportunity to leap into the rotation before the NBA Playoffs.
“There’s a whole bunch of guys that we know are going to play and that are in the rotation… There’s a couple spots where I think there’s packs of two or three guys that are fighting still to figure out who we can count on and play the role the best way it needs to be played.”
-Nick Nurse
Advanced Stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass
