Who will the Sixers start in place of Danny Green tonight, in a pivotal Game 4 against the Hawks?
A new player by the name of TBD, according to Doc Rivers at Sunday’s shootaround.
“I pretty much know, but no would be my answer right now,” Rivers said when asked if he knew the identity of the new starter for Game 4, later adding his biggest requirement is that “I’m looking for a 76er.”
Doc’s cageyness and snark aside, what he’s looking for in whomever he places alongside Embiid, Simmons, Harris, and Curry is up to the game plan.
“Being honest, without joking, it is a decision we’re going to have to make on what’s more important: the extra defender or the extra floor spacer,” Rivers said. “That was one of the things with Danny. Danny was so good defensively in a lot of cases that you got a little bit of both. So we’ve got to make that decision.”
The Sixers’ second-most used starting lineup this year had Matisse Thybulle in place of Simmons (alongside Green, Curry, and Embiid), and he would give Rivers the defense – he and Simmons ranked in the 99th percentile of forcing turnovers, according to Cleaning the Glass, taking the ball on 19 percent of opponents’ possessions when on the floor together.
As for floor spacing, the option there may be Furkan Korkmaz, who is a bit of a defensive liability but was hot early in Game 3 and drew praise from Rivers for his development.
“He’s really just playing hard, honestly, and I think he gets me better now, knowing that I don’t like football players – meaning I love the game of football, but I don’t like it played in basketball. You don’t get to play offense and then go rest. Two-way players are very important,” Rivers said of Korkmaz. “Furk is doing all the little things that are required out of him. We’re not asking him to be Ben, but we’re asking him to be a better version of himself defensively. And I think he’s doing that.”
Regardless of who starts, Green will be around the team as he works his way back, as the team “wants him around” as a glue guy.
“He’s very important, and so we’ve got to have him around our guys. That’s very important for our guys, especially in situations where the game gets a little out of control, emotions get out of control. Danny’s a flatliner,” Rivers said. “You need guys like that on your bench, on your team, because he has that calming effect on a lot of our guys. When everybody’s going helter-skelter, Danny’s going at Danny’s speed, his heart rate is probably flat. And those guys are very important to have on your basketball team, because the other guys see that. And we don’t have that anymore, at least on the floor, so we’re hoping he can give us as much as he can with his voice.”