PHILADELPHIA — I’ve long been of the belief that any team built around Joel Embiid is a team that needs a Plan B. Last year, the Sixers did not have one, and they ended up paying a heavy price. With Embiid sidelined for the first two games of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Heat, Doc Rivers was forced to put the ghost of DeAndre Jordan out on the court for 31 minutes. In those 31 minutes, the Sixers were outscored by 31 points. They lost both games by a combined margin of 30 points. The numbers may not be pretty, but they sure are tidy.
Which brings us to the news that the Sixers announced on Tuesday, and the alternate history it might have spawned had they instead announced it in May. Would the presence of a backup center like Montrezl Harrell have altered the balance of power in the Miami series? That’s probably a stretch. There’s a reason the two-year deal that he signed with the Sixers will pay him only the veteran minimum. With a 6-foot-7, 240-pound frame and nine career 3-pointers, Harrell offers a pick-and-roll center in a power forward’s body and all of the lineup conundrums that entails.
Still, if nothing else, his addition provides a fitting end to an offseason in which Rivers and Daryl Morey did everything in their power to preempt the desperate straits that ensnared them last postseason.
The Sixers might not have won many press conferences this offseason, but no team in the Eastern Conference has done more to improve its title odds. After a four-year cycle of chasing shiny objects and then undoing the damage of having caught them, the organization finally found itself in a position where it could actually attempt to build.
The best way to appreciate what Morey has accomplished — at least, thus far — is to look at it from the perspective of the loss to the Heat. Sub out Danny Green, sub in P.J. Tucker. Sub out Georges Niang, sub in De’Anthony Melton. Sub out Matisse Thybulle and Shake Milton, sub in Danuel House Jr. Keep in mind, with the exception of Green, the rest of those guys are still on the roster.
Rivers took plenty of criticism for the way he handled those two games without Embiid. Some of it was valid, but most of it was a function of the fact that he had no good options. This year, that will not be an excuse. This year, he has a whole regular season to play around with the near-infinite personnel combinations that Tucker, Melton, and House offer in conjunction with James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris. This year, there aren’t any excuses.
Where exactly does Harrell fit? That’s a fascinating question. He is a good regular-season player who reached his peak in his last two seasons with Rivers’ Clippers, winning the 2019-20 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award while averaging 18.6 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. Yet it can be hard to find a place for him in a playoff rotation: The last we saw him in the postseason, he was on the court for a total of 40 minutes in four games, all of them Lakers losses. During the 2020 postseason that earned Rivers a pink slip in L.A., Harrell finished with a negative plus-minus in 11 of 13 games. In fact, Harrell has finished in the red in 23 of his 30 career playoff games. In his last two postseasons, he is a combined minus-81.
Still, the risk is low. Bare minimum, Harrell gives the Sixers a player who brings enough offense to the five spot to lessen some regular-season pressure on Embiid. And when you consider the defenders that the Sixers have added, they will have at least some form of hope should they need to weather another high-stakes storm. Surround Harrell with Melton, House, and Tucker, and the defense might be survivable. At the very least, there are options.
Optionality is something that was in short supply for the Sixers after trading away most of their depth in the deal for Harden. At the time, it seemed as if the trade was made mostly with 2023 and beyond in mind. It was always going to take a specific supporting cast to make the most of a Harden-Embiid pairing. It was going to take guys who could both catch and shoot and add value on the defensive end. Those are tough guys to find in the middle of an NBA season, which meant the Sixers were more or less stuck with what they had. Now, suddenly, they have the most complete roster we’ve ever seen around Embiid.
It’s worth noting that the offseason is not yet over. Even when it is, Morey will have left himself with plenty of room to maneuver. The group of Niang, Thybulle, Milton, and Furkan Korkmaz seems ripe for packaging in exchange for a veteran. Each had moments last season when he was the first guy off the bench. Now, they enter training camp competing for the ninth or 10th spot in the rotation.
As for Plan Bs, the reality is that they don’t really exist in the NBA. You win with your stars, you lose without them. The ceiling for this season will be set by Embiid and Harden. The Sixers’ big accomplishment this offseason is building a supporting cast that can help them reach it.
