Biggest Questions Hanging Over Sixers Heading Into 2022 NBA Playoffs

After a turbulent regular season, the Philadelphia 76ers now know the path they must traverse to make it to the NBA Finals.

The Sixers finished as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, which means they’ll square off against the red-hot Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs. If they survive that series, they’ll take on either the Miami Heat or whichever play-in tournament team clinches the No. 8 seed.

We’ll have a full Sixers-Raptors series preview later this week. But before we break down the specific facets that could swing that series either way, we’re taking a bigger-picture look at some of the top questions hanging over the Sixers heading into the playoffs.

Backup center

Ever since sending Andre Drummond to the Brooklyn Nets at the trade deadline in the package for James Harden, the Sixers have been scrambling to find an answer at backup center.

Paul Millsap got the first crack at the gig after coming over from Brooklyn with Harden, but he failed his audition. The Sixers signed DeAndre Jordan in early March after the Los Angeles Lakers waived him and have largely leaned on him ever since, but he’s been up and down with his play as well.

Head coach Doc Rivers dusted off second-year big man Paul Reed in the final few regular-season games to give him a shot, and he was a mixed bag, too. His athleticism stood out compared to the 33-year-old Jordan and 37-year-old Millsap, but he’s still learning the intricacies of the NBA as a whole.

“Just understanding what we’re doing and execution,” Rivers told reporters earlier this month when asked what Reed needed to show to earn more minutes. “It’s been an area of frustration for us, but his teammates too, but he’s getting it. He’s working at it.”

Rivers told reporters Sunday that he plans to vary his backup center depending on matchup, going with Reed against smaller frontcourts and Jordan against bigger 5s. Regardless of who gets the call on any given night, they’ll need to make sure the Sixers aren’t getting blown off the floor in the minutes without All-Star center Joel Embiid.

Rotation staggering

The backup center decision will be among the biggest rotation questions Rivers must answer throughout the playoffs, but it isn’t the only one. He’ll also have to figure out which players to pair with Jordan, Reed or Millsap to ensure the Sixers can at least break even in the non-Embiid minutes.

Upon Harden’s arrival in Philadelphia, Rivers first tried largely pairing Embiid’s minutes with Tyrese Maxey and Harden with Tobias Harris. However, the Sixers have been outscored by 13.6 points per 100 possessions with Embiid and Maxey on the floor and Harden resting, per PBPStats, while they’ve been outscored by 11.0 points per 100 possessions with Harden on the floor and Embiid off.

With both Embiid and Harden on the floor, the Sixers are averaging a meteoric 125.8 points per 100 possessions and allowing only 109.1 per 100. That caused Rivers to briefly try staggering those two together and pairing Harris and Maxey, who mustered a plus-22.0 net rating in the 34 minutes they shared the floor without the two All-Stars.

The Sixers figure to give Maxey, Harden, Harris and Embiid upward of 40 minutes per game throughout the playoffs, but they won’t all play with one another at all times. How Rivers juggles those staggering decisions could help the Sixers maintain early leads or allow their opponents back into games.

Matisse Thybulle’s looming absences

When the Sixers faced the Raptors in Toronto last Thursday, Matisse Thybulle was listed as “ineligible to play,” which implied that he didn’t meet Canada’s Covid-19 vaccine requirements. To travel to Canada, a person must receive at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine “accepted for travel” (in other words, the Pfizer
PFE
or Moderna vaccines) or one dose of the J&J vaccine.

Thybulle confirmed to reporters Sunday that he is not fully vaccinated. He did receive one dose of the Pfizer vaccine last year, but he did not receive the second dose and thus won’t be able to play in the Sixers’ games in Toronto.

“I was raised in a holistic household, where anti-vax is not like a term that was ever used, it’s a weird term that has been kind of been thrown around to just label people,” he said. “We grew up with Chinese medicine and naturopathic doctors. Just with that upbringing, coming into the situation, I felt like I had a solid foundation of medical resources that could serve me beyond what this vaccine could do for me.”

When asked whether he considered getting the second dose once it became clear that he might be ineligible for part of a Sixers-Raptors series, Thybulle said there were “many, many points where I had to stop and reconsider.” However, he added “it was just hard to commit to doing something that I felt like was not right for me based off of a potential that could turn out that I wouldn’t have to have done it in the first place.”

The Sixers have home-court advantage against the Raptors, so they’ll play three games in Toronto at most. But if the Raptors win any of the games in Philadelphia, the Sixers will have to win at least one in Toronto without their best perimeter defender.

Who’s the fifth starter/closer?

Thybulle started in 50 of his 66 appearances this season, so he’d be the favorite to start alongside Maxey, Harden, Harris and Embiid under normal circumstances. However, his looming absences in the Raptors series may temporarily cause Rivers to pivot away from him as a starter.

Danny Green started in Thybulle’s place Thursday against Toronto, and he drew another start Saturday against the Indiana Pacers in the Sixers’ final dress rehearsal for the playoffs. He had his two highest-scoring games of the season in that role, finishing with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting (6-of-7 from deep) against the Raptors and 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting (4-of-10 from deep) against the Pacers.

The 34-year-old Green is no longer a lockdown wing defender, but he’s far more of an offensive threat than Thybulle, who’s a low-volume, mediocre three-point shooter. Green is a streaky shooter from deep, but teams can’t sag off him the same way they can with Thybulle.

While Green figures to start in place of Thybulle during the Toronto series, the fifth closer may vary on a game-to-game basis. If Thybulle is wreaking havoc defensively, he might get the nod. If Green is having a hot shooting night and isn’t getting wrecked on defense, he’ll likely close. Rivers could also turn to Georges Niang, one of the Sixers’ most consistent three-point threats.

Rivers will get 40-plus minutes of game action each night before having to make that decision. It might be an on-the-fly judgment call based on how each game is going.

Which James Harden shows up?

During his prime with the Houston Rockets, Harden was one of the league’s most dominant scorers. He led the NBA in scoring for three straight seasons from 2017-18 through 2019-20, averaging at least 30 points per game in all three years.

His scoring has taken more of a backseat to his playmaking in both Brooklyn and Philadelphia. He averaged 10.5 assists per game during his 21 regular-season outings with the Sixers, but he mustered only 21.0 points on 40.2 percent shooting overall and 32.6 percent from three-point range.

Harden appears to be lacking the blow-by burst that made him such a dangerous threat off the dribble in recent years. He still may be feeling the effects of a lingering hamstring injury, or he could be showing signs of more permanent, age-related decline.

As a result, Harden has been relying more on his step-back jumper, which has largely abandoned him in Philadelphia. He went 28-of-92 (30.4 percent) on step-back three-pointers in those 21 games, and he’s hitting only 31.6 percent of his pull-up triples compared to 40.0 percent of his catch-and-shoot treys.

The Harden of old did make an appearance in the Sixers’ loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in late March. He began the game relentlessly attacking the basket and attempting to finish through contact instead of flailing for foul calls that never came. The Sixers will need him to balance his scoring and playmaking and become more of an off-ball threat to maximize every offensive possession.

The Sixers are relative long shots to make it to the NBA Finals, as they’ve been far less impressive than expected since Harden made his debut in late February. These five questions may largely determine whether they can defy expectations and make a deep playoff run.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac.