Should Brett Play Zhaire & Shake Down the Stretch?

[Black Mage]

Just want to get a feel for where folks are at. In my view our bench is atrocious and TJ has become a liability. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of continuity and time to gel in favor of seeing if either of them could give us some minutes in the playoffs.

Why not find out if Shake can play well beside Simmons in place of TJ? It's not like TJ has stopped opposing guards and Shake clearly offers more offensively.

Why not find out if Zhaire can hang with opposing guards and could be a defensive stopper on the perimeter?

[XtremeDunkz]

No. Shake was completely lost on defense the other night. Not enough time to get them acclimated.

[the_process]

Just want to get a feel for where folks are at. In my view our bench is atrocious and TJ has become a liability. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of continuity and time to gel in favor of seeing if either of them could give us some minutes in the playoffs.

Why not find out if Shake can play well beside Simmons in place of TJ? It's not like TJ has stopped opposing guards and Shake clearly offers more offensively.

Why not find out if Zhaire can hang with opposing guards and could be a defensive stopper on the perimeter?

Shake isn't eligible to play in the playoffs. So no reason to play him other than mop up duty.

Zhaire, on the other hand... might be worth it to take a look at his on ball defense vs. lead guards.

[LloydFree]

I doubt he should. Unless by some miracle a 19 year old rookie, who hasn't been with the team all year, can somehow pick up all of the defensive signals and develop the proper communication with his teammates in 10 games, to the point where he can defend NBA veterans in the playoffs... If Zhaire Smith is a basketball savant, then yes.

[Black Mage]

Just want to get a feel for where folks are at. In my view our bench is atrocious and TJ has become a liability. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of continuity and time to gel in favor of seeing if either of them could give us some minutes in the playoffs.

Why not find out if Shake can play well beside Simmons in place of TJ? It's not like TJ has stopped opposing guards and Shake clearly offers more offensively.

Why not find out if Zhaire can hang with opposing guards and could be a defensive stopper on the perimeter?

Shake isn't eligible to play in the playoffs. So no reason to play him other than mop up duty.

Zhaire, on the other hand... might be worth it to take a look at his on ball defense vs. lead guards.

Yeah, I should have clarified, Shake would have to be converted from a 2-way contract to a regular contract. It could be done if Sixers really wanted him for playoffs.

[Black Mage]

I doubt he should. Unless by some miracle a 19 year old rookie, who hasn't been with the team all year, can somehow pick up all of the defensive signals and develop the proper communication with his teammates in 10 games, to the point where he can defend NBA veterans in the playoffs... If Zhaire Smith is a basketball savant, then yes.

I get it's a long shot for either guy to pick it up in 10 games. At the same time, would giving both of them 10-15 mins a night be all that bad just to see if they could? Is giving up TJ minutes and maybe giving JJ a bit of a breather really that big a deal at this point?

TJ is what he is. He's been here the entire year so he already knows the schemes. I truly don't think it'd be a bad thing to see if Shake or Zhaire could pick up things before the playoffs. If they could both would be upgrades. Heck, it'd be nice to just know they could provide help in a pinch or if we had foul troubles.

Certainly worth giving them playing time down this stretch.

[76ciology]

No, if you value chemistry. Both guys aren’t that good right now.

Yes, if you value health. Allows us to sit out these meaningless games. Preferably after we secure the 3rd seed.

[bball4life]

At the very least they should be taking all of TJ's minutes and some of JJs.

All of TJs because if TJ is playing in the post season the Sixers aren't winnning anything anyways. And JJs because he clearly needs some rest.

I would like to see if Zhaire can possibly play a defensive stopper role in the playoffs. But either way the experience will be good for them and these games are practically meaningless.

[rzzzzz]

As far as chemistry goes, we've just been told that Shake is being mentored by Jimmy, and that Harris is very impressed with him. Don't know if I'm that crazy about our current D with this years roster, but apparently it makes no difference as far as Shake or Zhaire, if Brett's quote from yesterday about neither of them playing in the post season is accurate.

[brannigan73]

Maybe? If the question is would they be better then the bad vets I think the honest answer is no. They are complete rookies who would most likely be worse on defense then the mediocre vets just because they don't have enough experience with the schemes and havent even got a chance to adjust to the speed of the NBA. So sure play them but dont expect them to be a net improvement maybe they could be roughly the same which is not good enough. And let me be clear I like both those guys as long term pieces but I just dont think there ready to be remotely overall positives on a 50 win team.

[Bum Adebayo]

Zhaire should replace TJ, but this is Brett we are talking about, you can't expect him to do any better.

[kuclas]

Playoffs a tough on rookies and that’s rookies who have played the entire season in nba

Look at what happened to fultz in playoffs. Just not enough experience to handle playoffs for someone whose played less than 15 nba games all season.

They just don’t know the defensive intensity

Even rookies who play the entire season like Celtics Jaylen brown in 2016-2017 season. Jaylen brown was essentially benched after Celtics went down 0-2 to the bulls in their first round playoffs.

Rookies are not ready especially rookies who barely been with the nba team all season

[rulebook]

No. I know we are desperately searching for a last-minute improvement, but no. Both will get destroyed in the playoffs and make negative plays on both ends of the court. I know we don’t think it can get worse than TJ bc we’re pissed that our horrendous bench will be our undoing...as early as the first round. But it can get worse. And there’s near-certainty that it would.

One thing I don’t get is thinking zhaire could be our “lock down on ball defender” in the playoffs. Because he hasn’t been that in the G league. He hasn’t locked down anyone. You think he’s locking down playoffs guards he’s never faced in a scheme he’s never played with an intensity he’s never faced in his life...by next month?

[youngcrev]

I'd see what Zhaire can do. I don't think he'd leap TJ or Ennis, but he could potentially be more useful immediately than J Simmons as the second wing off the bench.

I like Shake, but based on what I've read here, converting his contract now wouldn't make much sense, so he won't be active.

[hookshot199]

No, if you value chemistry. Both guys aren’t that good right now.

Yes, if you value health. Allows us to sit out these meaningless games. Preferably after we secure the 3rd seed.

If he's better than TJ and Redick defensively, then he should some minutes. But only situationally.
Brown's too rigid to do that. But we need more athleticism - situationally - in the backcourt.

[strotorious]

No, if you value chemistry. Both guys aren’t that good right now.

Yes, if you value health. Allows us to sit out these meaningless games. Preferably after we secure the 3rd seed.

Finding a balance between the two is the key. Recently we've been using a 9 man rotation with the starters playing 35-40 minutes. That's too much heading into the playoffs. Adding both would mean an 11 rotation, which seems too crowded, or pulling someone who might get playoff minutes. 10 seems like the sweet spot, with starters' minute totals in the low 30s. Shake has shown enough I'd be fine with him getting regular run for the rest of the season, then trim the rotation back down to 8 or 9 in the playoffs.

[the_process]

Looks like we got an answer. Brett has been using Shake tonight.

[kuclas]

Looks like we got an answer. Brett has been using Shake tonight.

Brett brown knows he needs offense off the bench. Shake can score and handle the ball

But he’s still looks lost on defense.

[rzzzzz]

Looks like we got an answer. Brett has been using Shake tonight.

Brett brown knows he needs offense off the bench. Shake can score and handle the ball

But he’s still looks lost on defense.

I thought Shake looked more solid on D tonight. But I hate having him just stand in the corner on the offensive end. I guess that's kind of standard operating procedure for breaking in young guards with this franchise.

[Sixerscan]

Was very impressed with Shake’s defense last night.

Still not sure how much better he would be than Ennis though. Ennis has also played well lately.