Happy Monday! The Sixers are halfway through their six-game preseason slate, and the team's first regular season game -- a clash against Giannis Antetokounmpo, Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks in Philadelphia -- is nine days away. With three exhibition contests in the books, let's take a look at what Sixers head coach Nick Nurse's decisions thus far could tell us about his regular season rotation. We'll also hit on a Sixers-adjacent piece of NBA news:
Sixers player previews: Critical questions and predictions for each member of the 2024-25 roster
Guerschon Yabusele appears to be Sixers' third-string center
Perhaps the most obviously significant development through three Sixers preseason games from a rotational perspective is that Yabusele has not just been the team's third-string center, but also that all of his minutes have come at the five. Yabusele has yet to log any playing time as a power forward, which is thought to be his natural position.
Yabusele entered training camp expected to be entrenched in a competition with KJ Martin and Ricky Council IV for backup power forward minutes as the last member of Nurse's rotation, but with Joel Embiid still not having played in the preseason, it has become clear that Nurse views Yabusele as his strongest alternative option at center beyond Andre Drummond.
This is a major show of faith in Yabusele from Nurse and the rest of the team's coaching staff, and it signals considerable trust in a few aspects of Yabusele's game: his improved three-point stroke and foot speed, as well as his ability to process what is happening in front of him and make sound decisions on the spot -- particularly as a defender.
Where does three-way battle for backup power forward minutes stand?
Back to the Yabusele vs. Martin vs. Council debate: Yabusele's strong position to handle center minutes when Embiid is out -- which should happen quite a bit, even when the former NBA MVP is healthy -- does not mean he cannot also be the team's backup power forward when Embiid is in the lineup.
Still, I lean towards Martin still being the favorite here. The reasons that led me to view him as the front-runner before training camp started are still at play: Nurse has far more familiarity with Martin than he does with Council or Yabusele -- giving him far more comfort in Martin as a decision-maker -- and Martin has considerably more experience as an impactful NBA player than Yabusele and Council combined.
And again, Yabusele's ability to slide up to the five does not exclude him from playing the four, but it is worth noting once more that he has not played a single minute at power forward in the preseason. Nurse and the Sixers are clearly excited about Council's potential -- and they have every right to be -- but it feels like they are being a bit cautious in relying on the second-year undrafted wing early in 2024-25. When Council is at his best, he can single handedly swing a game in his team's favor, but his decision-making on both ends of the floor does not yet appear consistent enough for the Sixers to feel comfortable playing him every single night.
Third-string point guard: Reggie Jackson or Jeff Dowtin Jr.?
In the Sixers' preseason opener, Dowtin, the two-way point guard, checked into the game far ahead of Jackson, the established veteran who is on a fully-guaranteed, standard NBA deal with the team. This posed an interesting question I had not previously considered: despite their contractual statuses, is there a chance the Sixers still believe Dowtin is currently a more helpful player than Jackson?
Nurse is a massive fan of Dowtin and has spoken glowingly about him in the past, including during the team's training camp in The Bahamas at the beginning of the month.
In the team's second preseason game, though, Jackson was the first substitution of the second half, while Dowtin did not check in until the middle of the fourth quarter; the next night Dowtin started and played 25 minutes while Jackson was on the bench with the night off.
There is no question that Jackson is far more proven than Dowtin at this juncture. His NBA career has lasted well over a decade to date, and even as his career winds down he is capable of taking and making some shots with high degrees of difficulty. On the other hand, Dowtin could be better-suited to play alongside high-profile pieces like the ones the Sixers have. Dowtin is far more impactful as a defensive player and can fill in the gaps on offense serviceably.
Does Jared McCain have a path to early playing time?
The Sixers' first-round rookie guard out of Duke was apparently the star of training camp, and through three games McCain been the star of the preseason as well. Nurse is giving McCain tons of opportunities to display his skills early on, and McCain has largely delivered. His three-point shot has looked far more impressive than it did during his disappointing handful of games at Summer League in July, with just enough tantalizing flashes in other areas to get you excited.
It begs the question: can McCain be a rotation player for the Sixers right off the bat? The natural inclination would be to say yes given he is playing more than anybody in preseason action and has made good on his chances, but it remains hard to imagine him cracking Nurse's rotation early in the season barring an injury to a perimeter player.
There is the one aforementioned rotation spot up for grabs, but because of the makeup of the Sixers' eight likely rotation locks, they probably need that final player to have much more size and frontcourt utility than McCain, who at the moment is solely an off-ball guard in an NBA environment.
The player on the roster who muddies McCain's chances of early playing time is veteran sharpshooter Eric Gordon -- someone who McCain should in many ways hope to emulate, but for now serves as a roadblock to the rookie seeing consistent action.
Danny Green retires from NBA
News broke on Thursday morning that three-time NBA champion Danny Green was retiring from basketball, ending a stellar 15-year career that saw Green transform from a No. 46 overall pick to one of the most decorated role players of his era; a perfect embodiment of the "3&D" mold that has become en vogue.
Green, whose three rings came with three different franchises -- the 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs, 2018-19 Toronto Raptors and 2019-20 Los Angeles Lakers -- spent the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons with the Sixers, starting in 97 of his 131 appearances and shooting 39.5 percent from beyond the arc on 5.4 long-range tries per game.
Green returned to the Sixers at the beginning of the 2023-24 season on a non-guaranteed, veteran's minimum deal -- reuniting with Nurse, who coached Green on the Raptors team that won it all -- but only played two games before being released to clear roster space for the four players joining the team after the James Harden trade.
On a national level, Green should be remembered as one of the most significant role players of a generation both in terms of helping his teams win games and influencing how wings in the NBA are taught to impact winning when they are not star-caliber players. In Philadelphia, his value was twofold: off the floor, his locker room leadership proved tremendously important to the team's younger pieces -- including Tyrese Maxey, who has often credited Green as his "vet"; on the floor, Green's skills were incredibly valuable to a team built around Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Green was a very good player for a very long time, who by all accounts has always been a very good guy. Wishing him all of the best in retirement.
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