Sixers’ center spot begins to fluctuate without Joel Embiid: ‘We need to continue to navigate it’

When asked following last Thursday’s practice about sharing reserve minutes with Nico Batum during the 76ers’ Feb. 27 loss at the Boston Celtics, Mo Bamba acknowledged “it’ll be interesting to see how we kind of deploy that lineup going forward.”

That statement could have even broader application today. As the Sixers continue to retool and experiment on the fly without reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Joel Embiid, coach Nick Nurse threw out a bit of everything from the big-man rotation during Sunday’s win at the Dallas Mavericks. Bamba started for the second consecutive game, while Paul Reed was a productive energy-setter off the bench. Then, Batum was in the closing lineup as the small-ball center, hitting a key jumper and two free throws down the stretch to help the Sixers finish off an important road victory.

“We need to continue to navigate it,” Nurse said of that position group last week.

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That is only one portion of the lineup with which Nurse has been tinkering during a ruthless schedule out of the All-Star break, and while implementing new players added around the trade deadline or returning from injury. Another notable change has been inserting veteran Kyle Lowry as a starter, which puts a savvy pure point guard on the floor immediately and aims to ignite athletic wing Kelly Oubre Jr. as an instant-offense scorer off the bench.

Yet the center position has seen the most fluctuation in recent games.

Batum, who entering Tuesday’s matchup at the Brooklyn Nets had started 29 games at forward for the Sixers, was first plopped into the middle during a Feb. 25 loss against the Bucks. Though the 35-year-old veteran had regularly played that small-ball role while with the Los Angeles Clippers — his shooting, passing, cutting, and defensive versatility make him valuable anywhere on the court — Batum said the day after that game that he “never” previously practiced there since joining the Sixers earlier this season.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to work on that now,’” Batum said. “I was kind of surprised. But you see the situation we’re in right now, so got to do it.”

The Sixers continued to drill Batum at center during shootaround before last Tuesday’s defeat at Boston. Coaches believed that look would allow the Sixers to switch defensively at all five positions, to try to curtail the three-point shooting from a Celtics team leading the NBA in attempts (41.5 per game entering Tuesday) and makes (17.1 per game) from long range. The Sixers largely succeeded in that area, holding Boston to 5-for-22 from deep in their final regular-season meeting.

But after moving Batum to the bench to be Reed’s initial backup, Nurse then went to the 7-foot Bamba to match up against the Celtics’ Luke Kornet. Bamba said he got more comfortable switching onto guards as the game progressed, though Nurse stressed his team needed better screening, rebounding, and rim protection from those frontcourt players.

“There [are] guys that certainly can give us a bit more,” Nurse said following that game. “It isn’t about offense, really. … We’ve got to make sure we’re playing a little bit more [of a] complete game.”

For Friday’s victory against the Charlotte Hornets, Bamba made his first start of the season because, by Nurse’s evaluation, the Hornets “kind of have one center with size, and then they come in and they go pretty small. And I just thought that would be a better matchup for us.” Bamba finished with two points and eight rebounds, while the 6-foot-9 Reed responded with 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in 24 reserve minutes.

“Of course I’m going to have a chip on my shoulder after they demote me like that,” Reed said after that game. “At the end of the day, I have to be a supportive teammate and, at the end of the day, it’s about the team. Whatever the team has to do to win, I’m all in for it.”

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Bamba started again Sunday against Mavericks 7-foot rookie Dereck Lively II, an alley-oop finish highlighting Bamba’s eight points and five rebounds in 14 minutes. Reed, meanwhile, put together another efficient 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting, to go along with seven rebounds and three assists. Reed’s three-pointer from the top helped cap the Sixers’ massive first-quarter turnaround, flipping an 11-0 deficit into a 10-point advantage. In one second-quarter sequence, Reed collected a quick putback, then elevated for a block (and rebound) on the opposite end, then went up and under for a reverse layup.

But then Nurse opted to close the game with Batum — who played all but 30 seconds in the fourth quarter — in a lineup the coach later described as “OK.” It was initially unveiled to match Dallas’ decision to go with Maxi Kleber down the stretch instead of Lively, Nurse said. Yet it also highlighted Batum’s versatile skill set and sage experience (remember: Nurse inserted a still-recovering Batum solely for one late inbound pass in a down-to-the-wire Feb. 23 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers).

Batum’s shot in the lane gave the Sixers a 110-101 lead with about three minutes to play, before he challenged Kyrie Irving’s miss at the rim on the Mavericks’ ensuing possession. Batum finished the game with 11 rebounds, including balls he ran down after they bounced far off the rim. Before Tobias Harris buried a massive corner three-pointer that pushed the Sixers’ advantage to 113-105 with 1:11 remaining, Batum was directing teammates with his hands in the middle of the floor. And with 10.8 seconds remaining, Batum sank two foul shots to put the Sixers up, 119-113.

“We got to a point to where we thought we could organize the offense a little better with more shooting out there,” Nurse said of that closing lineup with Batum.

The personnel shifts also suggest that perhaps Reed is more comfortable in a reserve role within this roster construction, which starting point guard Tyrese Maxey indicated following Sunday’s win.

Last week, Reed called stepping in as the starter for 14 of 15 games in Embiid’s absence “a great opportunity for me to grow as a player and a leader.” Some hiccups, though, had arisen in recent games. He picked up his fifth foul early in the third quarter in that home loss against the Bucks, forcing an extended break that Reed acknowledged was “extremely challenging” because “you try to warm up, but you’re still not going to have that same pop that you had before.” Nurse also said Reed was among the Sixers with subpar shot selection in that outing.

“He still had some up-and-down moments,” Nurse said of Reed. “Minutes-wise, he’s still an inexperienced player, and we’re just looking for consistency and playing to his strengths. And his strengths are playing really hard and rebounding the ball and getting us extra possessions.”

Embiid’s media session last Thursday reinforced that the MVP hopes to return to the floor before the end of the season. That means the Sixers might only need this patchwork center rotation for a few more weeks.

Who will they deploy first — and last — on Tuesday against the Nets, who boast the hyper-athletic Nic Claxton but little prototypical size?

Bamba certainly remains among those interested to find out.