Sixers Offseason Notebook: Georges Niang Is Going To Be Important
Will the Drummond signing be a mistake?
Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He has been legally banned from covering the team in person, and when that ban was set to be lifted, Covid-19 struck. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
With free agency winding down, the entire Sixers universe is focused on a Ben Simmons trade -- will or won’t it happen? Which teams are interested? What would a potential package look like?
Nobody knows the answers to those questions yet. And truth be told, whether or not this Sixers offseason is a successful one hinges on what happens with Simmons.
The reality is that in many contexts, evaluating this roster is difficult given the buffer that exists with the Simmons situation. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t pieces of this roster worth evaluating. Here’s what’s on my mind at this point:
Shake, Maxey and Springer: guards, guards and more guards
For what felt like an eternity, the Sixers repeatedly failed to add dynamic guards to their roster. They severely lacked reliable ball-handling and rim pressure, largely due to the fact that they essentially ignored an entire position.
Taking a look at their roster now, however, incites some newfound optimism -- even more in the long-term than the short-term.
After those years of guard-less rosters, the Sixers may actually have a glut of ball-handlers right now. Putting Simmons aside, they have Seth Curry coming off a breakout playoffs performance, Tyrese Maxey entering his sophomore year after utterly dominating Summer League, Shake Milton not far removed from being a very good third guard, and a fascinating rookie in Jaden Springer. And that’s before we get to the hypothetical return in a trade involving Simmons, that would likely contain at least one high-level guard.
Georges Niang is going to be important
The Sixers brought the sharpshooter Niang in on a two-year deal, adding a player who has made at least 40 percent of his three-point attempts in each of his last three seasons with the Utah Jazz.
It can reasonably be estimated that Niang, at 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, will be a small-ball power forward for this team. With Mike Scott gone in all likelihood and Simmons being on the trading block, the Sixers don’t have any other options outside of a hypothetical player they may or may not get in return for Ben.
The only other real option is one that Doc Rivers tried frequently, but failed to get effective play out of: lineups featuring four guards and wings with just one big man, where Matisse Thybulle is the small-ball four. As excellent as Thybulle is -- and he can guard above his height -- that is not an optimal use of his defensive prowess, and it also doesn’t elicit much of an offensive advantage. The Sixers are going to need Georges Niang to be rock solid and consistent coming off the bench, perhaps more than any reserve outside of the one we’ll wrap up with.
Andre Drummond: Dwight Howard redux or something more?
As entertaining as Dwight Howard was during his brief Sixers tenure, his massive struggles in high-leverage situations was a brutal flaw for last year’s team. Howard’s regular season production was perfectly fine: he rebounded at a high level, served as a reliable lob threat and blocked shots.
Those are the very same things that are supposedly Andre Drummond’s calling cards. Drummond, legitimately one of the best rebounders of his generation, will almost surely be at least decent as a regular season backup for Joel Embiid.
But when the Sixers really need a reliable backup center is in the playoffs. (Good lord, how many years am I going to have to write this same sentence for?)
Drummond has only played 13 playoff games in his career, so not much can be drawn from that sample. The reality is that Drummond can play 82 solid regular season games but then fall short in the postseason, and it will all have been for naught.
My guess? Drummond will fall in the middle of the spectrum, definitely not in the “holy shit why is Greg Monroe on the floor” spectrum, but also nothing special. Once again, we will hope for a pleasant surprise from a backup center. *Sigh*.