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The Philadelphia 76ers will surely look different in the 2024-25 season after their busy offseason. But how will Nick Nurse map out the minutes distribution, rotation and roles for the revamped roster?
Based on how his teams have operated in the past, including last year's Sixers, Nurse is disinclined to construct a rotation beyond ten players. Usually, there are nine surefire rotation guys with some room to work in another depending on how games play out. Coming into the year, most of those nine safe spots are spoken for.
Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George will start. Caleb Martin and Kelly Oubre Jr. are likely to start and will be top-of-the-bench reserves if not. Andre Drummond is slated to be Embiid's backup. It's reasonable to assume Kyle Lowry will have a rotation spot. Outside of that, it's a toss-up between a handful of other veterans and young guys.
Nurse's plans for this Sixers roster are sure to be fluid as the season progresses. He'll have a trio of stars to work with but could also see a major midseason trade. For now, with the preseason underway and the regular season not far behind, he has some important decisions to make.
Will the 76ers start Kyle Lowry? If so, over who?
The presumed starting five for this year's Sixers includes both Oubre and Martin alongside the trio of stars. But could Lowry remain in the starting lineup, a spot in which he spent his whole first stint with his hometown team?
Starting Lowry would give the Sixers a critical infusion of intelligent passing and perimeter shooting. Philly has enough dangerous scorers for Lowry to be mostly a connective passer and spot-up shooter. He doesn’t have the same juice with the ball in his hands that he used to but playing alongside Embiid, Maxey, and George can cover that up.
One of the primary issues with starting Lowry would be that a smallish starting five gets even smaller and less athletic. For as competitive and fearless as Lowry is, he's positionally inflexible. Oubre and Martin are more versatile, which is why they make sense as the other starting options, but neither of them has the basketball IQ of Lowry, who has also been the more efficient shooter of the three historically.
Lowry has been one of Nurse's guys for years and possesses skills that the 76ers need around their stars to make their lives easier. However, as he enters his age-39 season, Lowry should not consistently play 25 to 30 minutes a night. Philly surely wants such a savvy, competitive veteran in the playoffs, so he will have to take a cut in minutes to leave enough in the tank.
To start last season, Nurse made Oubre a starter but often played the sixth man in the rotation as many or more minutes than him. More than five players would play starter-caliber minutes routinely. This suggests that Lowry could still start but not be overly exerted, allowing Oubre and others off the bench to soak up plenty of playing time. Assuming Lowry does factor into the rotation, the fifth starting spot suits him well.
How big of a role will Ricky Council IV have?
Heading into his second NBA season, Council is eager to become as well-rounded as possible. The 23-year-old is exactly what the Sixers need on the wing: a fearless, aggressive, versatile wing. He gets to the foul line, has shown improvement as a three-point shooter, and is unafraid of doing the dirty work.
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Guerschon Yabusele and K.J. Martin are the Sixers' other forward options off the bench, though they skew close enough to being power forward types. Council is more of a perimeter-oriented wing rather than a bigger forward. He can handle the ball and score on his own while defending up more reliably. The Sixers' free-throw rate receives an instant boost every time Council checks in and his three-point shot, while still not top-notch, has improved substantially since last year.
The 76ers' bench rotation is slated to be more guard-heavy with Lowry and Eric Gordon (who will be discussed later) presumably being the main bench options. Council, however, has the size and strength to give Philly more versatility on the wing. Looking around at other Eastern Conference foes, if not the entire league, shows how meaningful that can be.
If Nurse is more inclined to expand his rotation to 10 players, the best fit by position seems to be playing Council with one of Yabusele or Martin as the backup forwards. Even if Council is the first of a few players who will enter the rotation on a game-by-game basis, the Sixers need to give him a real shot.
Who wins out between Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson and Jared McCain?
The 76ers have Maxey, Lowry, and Oubre entrenched in three guard spots. The fourth (should Nurse go that way) will seemingly come down to the first-round rookie and a pair of veterans.
There won’t be a lack of veterans to lean on for McCain, though it will complicate his path to immediate playing time. Being a rookie already means he has to prove a lot before earning a rotation spot, so a crowded room at his position should make him expect to only play sparingly. An impressive showing at training camp may not be enough. He will have to earn Nurse's trust and make sure his primary skill, three-point shooting, translates to the pros, though there’s plenty of optimism to suggest it will.
Gordon, for his sky-high volume of spot-up threes and Jackson, for his ability to handle the ball and shoot, will each have shots to crack the rotation. But, even with their skills and NBA cache, they’re coming up to the ends of their careers and are more susceptible to younger players usurping their spots.
The news of Gordon's deal with the Sixers was among the first batch of slop drops in 2024 free agency (along with George, Oubre, and Drummond), showing that he was made a priority by the front office. He could have been a sensible signing for several teams but chose the 76ers, who surely stuck out because they could offer a reunion with Daryl Morey and Paul George on a winning team. However, Gordon would not have chosen Philly — especially so early in free agency — if he didn’t feel good about his chances to play.
McCain is probably going to get the short end of the stick, at least initially, because he's a rookie. But with the mountain of endorsements of his work ethic, he’ll put the work in to earn his minutes. Either he will slide in as a third-string option or get live reps in the G League, where he could instantly be one of the more impactful players.
