Getty Tobias Harris #12, Tyrese Maxey #0, James Harden #1, and Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Philadelphia 76ers enter the 2022-23 season with the most balanced roster in recent memory. The top is as strong as they come: prime Joel Embiid, a rising Tyrese Maxey, and hungry James Harden.
But the rest of the rotation also bears its fair share of strength. The Sixers have a swaggering identity brought on by PJ Tucker and Montrezl Harrell. The team boned up on defense by adding the tenacious De’Anthony Melton. Georges Niang, Furkan Korkmaz, and Danuel House project to provide some scoring pop.
Caught in the middle is Tobias Harris. Harris projects to play much more three this season, though he spent just 23% of his time there last season. Even scarier, Harris is a below-average defender at small forward, coughing up 114 points per 100 possessions when he’s in the spot. Add in the defensive woes of Maxey and Harden, and it might be tough for the Sixers to trot out the league’s best defense next season.
But according to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, the Sixers could curb those defensive issues by swapping out Harris for one of their better defensive players.
“The Sixers revamped their team to render [Matisse] Thybulle’s defense inessential if he pratfalls on offense. Melton’s brand of chaos and fearless rebounding is a welcome jolt for a stodgy group. Tucker helps on the offensive glass,” Lowe wrote on October 6.
“Swapping in one of those guys for Tobias Harris leaves both Maxey and Harden still out there.”
If the Sixers do swap Harris for one of their better bench defenders, who makes the most sense?
Who Could Replace Harris in the Starting Rotation?
Let’s start from the premise that Embiid, Maxey, Harden, and Tucker will start for Philadelphia. That leaves one of Thybulle or Melton to realistically slot into the starting five in place of Harris.
Last season, Philadelphia’s best lineup (with at least 60 minutes combined) featured Embiid, Maxey, Harden, Thybulle, and Harris. That five gashed opposing teams to the tune of plus-19.4 points per game and plus-5.2 assists. The negatives, namely offensive rebounding (minus-3.7 offensive boards per game), should be fixed by Tucker’s excellent offensive rebounding.
If Tucker slides into Thybulle’s slot, it should only open the floor up more for Embiid and the rest of the offensive to go to work. Thybulle was an offensive liability last season, allowing teams to shade off the former Washington Huskie and force the Sixers into virtual four-on-five scenarios.
But compared to Melton’s career stats, Harris leads the way in points, assists, and shooting per 36 minutes. Granted, Harris has a much longer career to work from. But the real key to adding Melton to the lineup would require his defense to be head and shoulders ahead of Harris’s. That might not yet be completely the case.
If either one would slide into the starting five, Thybulle might make the most sense. Unfortunately, Thybulle is giving the Sixers every reason not to start him this season after a lackluster preseason.
Thybulle Disappointing for Sixers in Preseason
On Monday night’s preseason opener against the Brooklyn Nets, Thybulle was far from exhilarating. Despite a summer of bragging about all of his offensive adjustments, fans were greeted with much of the same old Thybulle.
“Consider me a skeptic,” Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice wrote on Monday night. An ideal outcome for the Sixers would be not having to rely on [Thybulle] too much this season.”
If Thybulle doesn’t show more in the Sixers’ next two preseason games, it might be the death knell to any hope he has of cracking the starting five.