BBall vs. Bamba: It's War on Nick Nurse

I can no longer tolerate Nurse acting like this is any degree of an actual battle between our big men. It's mattress time buddy.

Boy was I pissed when it was first announced that Nick Nurse would be starting Mo Bamba over BBall Paul in Charlotte three Saturdays ago. After weeks of flirting with the idea of bumping Bamba over Paul in the team's big man depth chart, it seemed Nurse was now outright committing to it -- an act of war that was positively daring me to come storming from the bleachers to defend my beautiful and perfect son's good name. In truth, however, the promotion was mostly a nominal one for Mo: In that game and the six after it, our new nine-foot starter still played under 20 minutes each night, while Paul played over 20 in all but one game. I consequently laid down my arms -- temporarily, as I continued to closely monitor the situation. 

But things got worrisome once again this weekend in Milwaukee. In a close game that the Sixers actually had a good chance to steal, Bamba played an inexcusable 23 minutes -- though still at least one fewer than Paul's 24 -- and closed the game in the lineup, as Philly let things slip away to the Brook Lopez-led Bucks. Then, against Charlotte, an unmistakable provocation: a staggering 28 and a half minutes for Bamba, as Paul slipped under 20 for the first time since the Memphis loss -- though he did close this time, as the Sixers were able to pull away from the crappy Hornets. 

Well, once is happenstance, twice is coincidence and three times is enemy action. And now with Nick Nurse not only starting Mo Bamba, but occasionally closing him and/or playing him greater minutes than BBall Paul, I can no longer stay patient on the sidelines. It's war, and I'm going to need your help in joining the cause against Nick Nurse and his unconscionable deployment of our big men. 

Now, I know I might not be the most credible general to be leading this fight. I've openly admitted to being unable to think rationally when it comes to BBall Paul these days, and it's true that even if Bamba was undeniably outplaying my infallible BBall, I would still be crying bloody murder at the former receiving any amount of preferential treatment. 

But....... Bamba isn't outplaying BBall. He hasn't been outplaying BBall. HE NEVER WILL BE OUTPLAYING BBALL. 

Mo Bamba: Nice guy, beautiful gowns. Bad basketball player. MOC told us before the year began, calling him "unbelievably atrociously awful" and summarizing his player profile as such: "He’s low motor, low-IQ, has terrible hands, doesn’t rebound, and is less agile than you think he is." All true! All stunningly, painfully accurate. Bamba is a miserable rebounder, a compromised-at-best rim protector, and can best be described on offense as "in the way." 

There are few things more discouraging about the Sixers right now than watching a double-teamed Tyrese Maxey throw the ball to Bamba at the top of the key and seeing him have to decide what to do next. Should he rise up and shoot over the defense, like the floor-stretching big he ostensibly is? Should he attempt to drive to the basket, take advantage of what is now a 4-on-3 situation and perhaps dump the ball off or kick it out to a now-wide-open teammate? Should he look to post up the nearest defender, who is almost certainly at least a half-foot shorter than he is? Or should he just kinda stiffly hold the ball over his head and wait to pass both the ball and the responsibility for actually moving the possession forward to a more decisive teammate? I'll let you guess which option Bamba opts for nine times out of 10. 

Bamba is not completely without utility: Put him in the exact right position at the exact right time and he can do the right thing. If he's already at the basket on defense while a shorter player drives at him, or on offense when a teammate commands help defense on a layup attempt, he can be good for a block or a putback dunk. The floor-stretching isn't a total myth; he's hit exactly one wide-open triple each of the last three games, which is nice. But the problem is he's very rarely in the exact right position at the exact right time; that requires a combination of instincts and speed which he simply does not have. Far more often, he's getting screamed at by Kyle Lowry for posting up when he should be setting a screen (or vice versa), or stepping out to meet an attacking offensive player and then badly losing a footrace to the rim with them as they easily deposit the ball for two. He is not a player who makes things happen; if they do not happen specifically for him, he is hopeless as a contributor. 

Score This Authentic 96-97 Iverson Jersey

Meanwhile, "making things happen" is at the very top of the "Unique Skills" portion of BBall Paul's resumé. Paul does not need circumstances to be perfect for him to make a positive impact; as a matter of fact, he seems to actively prefer chaos, as evidenced by the fact that seemingly every broken offensive possession with him on the court -- particularly the ones that he himself breaks -- ends with him improbably collecting the ball and sinking a buzzer-beating 20-footer. He brings violence at the rim on defense. He's improving his playmaking, his finesse scoring. He doesn't foul as much as he used to. And yes, he's even begun to stretch the floor, shooting 39% on the season from deep. 

There's been a narrative this season that Paul has been inconsistent, even disappointing in his overall play -- one furthered, I'm devastated to say, by our own MOC, meaning there's probably at least some degree of objective truth to it. But not lately. Since the Charlotte game he was first brought off the bench, he's averaged 12 and 8 on 55% shooting, including 50% from deep, with a steal, two blocks and twice as many assists and turnovers, all in under 25 minutes a night. Those numbers don't need extra context or rose-colored shading from me, they're just good numbers. And for the season now, his scoring rate is back up to his usual level of around 14 points per 36. His FG shooting, rebounding, blocks and steals are all down, but his three-point shooting, assist to turnover ratio and foul rate are also all at career-best marks. 

Is he an acceptable substitute for Joel Embiid? Of course not. Is he on track to become an All-Star? Not yet, anyway. Is he by far the best backup center we've ever had for Embiid, and the only one we could promote to his position atop our depth chart at the five and not have it be a completely unmitigated disaster? YES. Yes, of course, a thousand times goddamn yes. BBall Paul is good at basketball. He fucking well should be, he's got the sport in his name. 

The Downfall of Doc Rivers' Reputation

But you don't need to believe me that BBall Paul is good. You only need to believe me that BBall is better than Mo Bamba. And that is obvious in any game the two take the court; it is also obvious from the box scores, and even from the advanced stats if you want to go digging through those again. Hell, let's look at the two things that Bamba is supposed to be making his name on as a giant stretch five: shot blocking and three-point shooting. Since he's been moved into the starting lineup for the Sixers, he's made three threes and blocked seven shots total. Over that same nine-game span, BBall has MADE SEVEN THREES AND BLOCKED 16 SHOTS. The two things Bamba is actually expected to provide, and Paul's more than doubling him up on both -- in more minutes, sure, but hardly twice the minutes. Then when you get into all the other stuff, tangible and intangible, it's no contest at all. We can argue all day about exactly how good BBall is -- and trust me, I'll have you fucking begging for a change of subject after about five minutes -- but any argument between BBall and Bamba gets laughable after just a couple seconds.  

So why does Nick Nurse keep leaning on him like this? Hell if I know, but if I had to guess, it seems to me that a lot of coaches just prefer predictable inactivity to chaotic super-activity. You can't rely on Mo Bamba, but you can rely on Mo Bamba to be Mo Bamba, to drift aimlessly around the half court, to give the ball up when he doesn't have a long-jump's worth of open space in front of him to shoot, to generally stay near his man and near the basket on defense. He will never foul attempting a back-court strip 95 feet from the basket, and he will never attempt the ugliest-looking three-pointer in the world because hey why not, both of which BBall certainly fucking will. Some coaches just also like a center who looks like the Washington Monument, tall and skinny and stiff, preferring the security of a last line of defense being a real goddamn center-looking-center, and not a glorified power forward in body (and arguably in spirit) the way BBall is. 

And so far, Sixers fans mostly seem willing to give Nurse the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Bamba and BBall. But I ask you: If it were not Nick Nurse, but Doc Rivers thoughtlessly playing Bamba over BBall, drifting towards overplaying him as if by sheer gravitational force and giving shrugging quotes about it when asked, would not you be filling the YouTube comments and Reddit threads with loud complaints about it? Wouldn't you have enlisted already in the fight against him? Wouldn't you be on the fucking front lines by now?? 

I know we like Nurse more, because he's got a funny hat and he loves sick guitar solos and he hasn't yet shepherded a bunch of embarrassing Sixers playoff losses that he then abdicated any responsibility for. But if we let him get away with this now, maybe it's only a matter of time before BBall gets yanked from a playoff game for being weird, and Nurse starts eyeing Bamba at the end of his bench and wondering well what's the worst that could happen? We don't have to accept that. We can't accept that. Join me in this fight and let's put a stop to the insanity, before we have to hear Nick Nurse on the post-game mic, hoarsedly explaining, “I thought we had opportunities... I don't know what else we could have done.”

---

Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey As Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard. 

Andrew's writing is brought to you by Kinetic Skateboarding! Not only the Ricky's approved skate shop, but the best place to get Chucks, Vans, any apparel. Use code "DAVESILVER" for 9.1% off your order.