Once former Celtics coach, Doc Rivers, parted ways with the Los Angeles Clippers, it didn't take long for the Philadelphia 76'ers to latch onto him. His team takes the court tonight at 7:30 ET for an exhibition contest versus the Boston Celtics. Doc indicates it is all about conditioning, timing and pace - along with a large dose of 4-man, position-less basketball. We can assume that Philly center, Joel Embiid will reamain glued to the 5-spot (per Philadelphia Enquirer's Keith Pompey):
They will run more pick-and-rolls under Rivers compared to the past seven seasons with Brett Brown. They’ll also run a motion offense with every position interchangeable besides the five spot. Right now, the offense is a day-to-day process.
“Obviously, Shake [Milton] and Furkan [Korkmaz] being together,” he said, “I definitely want to see Tyrese [Maxey] with that group because of his ball-handling ability and his ability to shoot. Mike Scott has had a phenomenal training camp, not a good one. A phenomenal one.”
Rivers said he hasn’t decided on a sixth man yet, but one gets the sense the job could be Milton’s to lose. The Sixers’ starting lineup consists of Danny Green, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid, Seth Curry and Ben Simmons.
Rivers hinted that conditioning was important, and he just wanted to keep the pace at a high level, meaning he won't be calling a lot of timeouts. It looks like Ben Simmons will be running the show, and he does his best work in a motion offense.
The story-behind-the-story here is that rumors of Ben Simmons heading to Houston in exchange for James Harden persist. This all depends on Doc' thoughts on Embiid and Simmons coexisting in Philly. Tonight's clash of the Eastern Conference rivals may supply a few answers for Doc on whether that rumor becomes reality.
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