I see a ton of posts here everywhere trashing BBall Paul and I think the slander's misplaced. He's been a quality backup 5 ever since Doc finally gave him some minutes, and is still the only backup 5 that we've EVER had to be about even or even + in playoffs when Joel sits in some series.
This year our non Embiid lineups were pitiful, almost as bad as 2019 with Monroe. The huge difference between Monroe and Reed is that these are not defensive issues, or at least not the main one. Our offense absolutely crashes without the MVP dominating, and there is zero realistic backup 5s that solve an offense issue unless we're looking to spend 15M+ on a 8-10 minute player in the playoffs when Joel's healthy (and if he's not, nobody is carrying us past that round anyways lol)
The biggest issue is shot creators, we need at least one more of them. A playmaking creator would be perfect, but there aren't any realistic ones outside Jimmy if Heat decide to blow it up, or LeBron in some miracle. Shooting 34/22.5 splits in non Joel minutes, and mind you this is with every other starter and combination out there points to a larger issue than backup 5
Main reason I've been warming up on PG13, he's gonna age like dog shit in 2-3 years but I'm expecting Joel to as well. We could get a damn good shot creator and volume scorer (though I acknowledge he's lost some burst and his rim numbers are waning) for 2 possibly 3 years and it'd coincide with Joel's prime
TLDR: Joel good, Reed is not amazing but no realistic backup 5 is set up for success either
by Thegrandmistressofoz
