Skip to content
Sports

Is it possible the Sixers are better set at point guard than at center?

    by John Smallwood
    Published 
Okay, so who thought that at the end of Year 4 of the Sixers' rebuilding plan, they’d be more secure at the point-guard position than at center?
Coming out of the 2016-17 season, however, point guard T.J. McConnell, an undrafted rookie free agent signed in 2015, is more of a sure thing moving forward than the original plan of Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor — the three young centers the Sixers acquired with high lottery picks in three consecutive drafts.
If you don’t consider the 31-game tease from Embiid as a qualifier, McConnell has arguably been the second-most valuable Sixer, to rookie forward Dario Saric.
That’s a stunning development and a major kick to the groin to the Sixers' rebuilding plan as it moves to a fifth year in 2017-18.
Remember how going into the 2016 draft, the Sixers' triumverate of barely 20-year-old centers was the golden ticket to making moves that would balance the roster and set the stage for a bigger leap forward.
That produced a whimper, not a bang, as the only thing the Sixers acquired was swingman Justin Anderson and a conditional first-round draft pick that will likely become two second-round picks for Noel in a deadline-day trade with the Dallas Mavericks.
Embiid has been shut down after just 31 games – meaning he will have played just 12.6 percent of the possible 246 games since he was drafted No. 3 overall in 2014.
Okafor, picked third in 2015, has regressed into a shell of the player he showed to be in a first-team all-rookie campaign.
He hasn’t exactly been a pillar of health, either. Okafor missed the final 23 games of last season with a meniscus tear in his right knee and has been bothered this season by frequent swelling in the same knee.
He is listed as questionable for Thursday night's game at Portland after missing the last two games with soreness in the knee.
Because of healthy scratches and injury, Okafor could end up playing fewer games this season than the 53 he played as a rookie.
Whether because of bad luck or bad decisions, right now, the only center the Sixers can count on going into 2017-18 is second-year reserve big man Richaun Holmes, who was drafted out of Bowling Green in the second round as a power forward.
Of the numerous point guards the Sixers have blown through since trading 2013 lottery pick Michael Carter-Williams midway through the 2014-15 season, McConnell came in as one of the least regarded.
When the Pittsburgh native turned a summer-league invitation into a roster spot, he was primarily a bargain-basement roster-filler to back up the forgettable Tony Wroten and more forgettable Kendall Marshall.
Even coming into this season, McConnell was viewed as the third point guard, behind free-agent signees Jerryd Bayless and Sergio Rodriguez.
McConnell, however, has taken advantage of the season-ending injury to Bayless and the scattered play of Rodriguez to show that he is a legitimate NBA rotation player.
No, he probably should not be a starter, but McConnell has shown that he is a reliable-enough safeguard to allow the Sixers to go full fuel ahead with next season’s plan to try injured No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons, a 6-10 forward, at point guard.
Had everything gone as planned, the last position the Sixers should have to be concerned with addressing would be center.
In virtually every scenario – even the one with Embiid not being healthy – the Sixers would have entered the 2017 draft and summer free agency looking to address concerns in the backcourt and scoring from the swing position.
With guards Markelle Fultz (Washington), Lonzo Ball (UCLA), Dennis Smith (N.C. State), De’Aaron Fox (Kentucky), Malik Monk (Kentucky) and Frank Ntilikina (France) plus wings Josh Jackson (Kansas), Jason Tatum (Duke)  and Jonathan Isaac (Florida State) all rated in the top part of the lottery, the Sixers won’t reach for a big with a pick that should be in the top six.
Still, that the idea of the Sixers' drafting another center or obtaining one in free agency or hoping that veteran Tiago Splitter, who has not played this season, gets healthy have to be considered as serious options, would have been unfathomable six months ago.
At the start of the 2016-17 season, the Sixers had what seemed like an embarrassment of riches in young centers.
Going into the 2017-18 season, they can only hope they'll have one as reliable as point guard T.J. McConnell.
    JS
    John Smallwood
Join The Conversation
Community Guidelines