2023-24 Depth Chart / Minute Allocation

[FlyingArrow]

Here is the depth chart for how we ended the 2022-23 season:

Embiid / Reed / Trez / Dedmon
Tucker / Niang
Harris / McDaniels / Korkmaz / Louis King
Maxey / Melton / House / Springer
Harden / Milton / McClung

Other G-League players worth mentioning: SF Braxton Key, PF Michael Foster Jr

===

A lot will change between now and opening night. Here's another way of looking at it, with players slotted into their natural positions and what string they should be playing:

Center
1st String: Embiid
2nd String: Reed
3rd String: Trez, Dedmon

PF
1st String: Harris
2nd String: Tucker, Niang
3rd String: Michael Foster Jr

SF
1st String: ?????
2nd String: McDaniels
3rd String: Korkmaz, Louis King, Braxton Key

SG
1st String: Maxey
2nd String: Melton, House, Milton
3rd String: Springer

PG
1st String: Harden
2nd String: ?????
3rd String: McClung

You'll notice I have Tucker as a 2nd string player. He did okay, but I just don't think he's a starter caliber player at this point. Which means we don't actually have 5 starter-caliber players. And this year, most of the players who were actually playing our SF minutes are really guards or power forwards (Melton, House, Tobias, Niang). We have plenty of depth... it's just poorly distributed.

I think there's a lot of potential in the 3rd string to move up to be a solid rotation player. Not Trez and Dedmon - they are pretty much done, but if either comes back they can play plenty of regular season minutes to keep Embiid down to 30mpg. Foster isn't ready, and Korkmaz has had his chances. But of McClung, Springer, King, and Key, I think at least 2 of them could turn into solid rotation players next year.

If Harden leaves us, as today's rumors indicate, then we are without a natural 1st or 2nd string point guard. The shooting guards would fill in and figure it out, but it would be good to have a natural facilitator or two.

It's too early to start guessing on minutes, but I thought it was useful to lay out the depth chart to see where our needs are, especially as players come and go through transactions over the summer.