76ers' New Lineup Considered 'Fascinating' to Watch in Orlando

On August 1st, the Philadelphia 76ers will return to the court for a regular-season game for the first time since the league shut down on March 11th. Back when the NBA went on an unexpected hiatus, the Sixers were underachieving and lacked a real identity, but most of all, they were unhealthy and banged up.

While the forced suspension was an unfortunate scenario for the league, the Sixers saw a silver lining. Over the last few months, the team got healthy, built better chemistry with each other off the court, and even reevaluated some of the team's strengths and weaknesses.

And after further evaluation during the suspension, 76ers head coach Brett Brown decided to tweak the team's starting lineup -- offering a never-before-seen lineup from the 2019-2020 Philadelphia 76ers.

The Lineup:

PG: Shake Milton

SG: Josh Richardson

SF: Tobias Harris

PF: Ben Simmons

C: Joel Embiid

With Al Horford heading back to the bench, Brett Brown has decided to bring in the breakout guard Shake Milton, and shift Ben Simmons back to his college position at power forward. Over the last few seasons, many have called for Simmons to be switched off the ball -- but neither Simmons nor Brown would budge.

Now that Brown has seen potential out of Milton, though, the Sixers head coach feels comfortable enough to shift Simmons elsewhere and give the Sixers a point guard who can help with the team's spacing issues. And because of the small but significant changes with the lineup, ESPN's Zach Lowe considers the Sixers' starters to be one of the "most fascinating" lineups to play in the NBA's restart this summer.

Lowe's Evaluation

Just when I think I'm out, the Sixers -- my preseason pick to make the NBA Finals, my siren song -- pull me back in.

The Sixers are minus-9 with Simmons, Horford, and Embiid together, and their offense has disintegrated. Their now-mothballed starting five has scored at the rate of the Bulls' 29th-ranked offense.

Shake Milton has more north-south zip, and the Sixers really need that. He's longer than you think on defense. . . Simmons is a veteran of the dunker spot, and can be a devastating cutter from outside the arc. He's a nasty screener, and plays that role more with Horford on the bench, per Second Spectrum. The Milton-Simmons pick-and-roll has worked in small doses; Milton has nice touch on entry passes.

Simmons will still have the ball a ton, and he should be more effective with it in this arrangement. (Milton loves to run the wings for Simmons in transition.) The smaller Sixers have made good use of the "snug" pick-and-roll between Simmons and Embiid on the block -- a play that works better with three shooters buzzing around it.

Brett Brown's newest experiment is far from permanent. After all, he's only utilized the Milton-Simmons switch for just two weeks of practice. While the Sixers seem highly committed to making the new lineup work, a lot can change over time as the team has multiple scrimmages and eight regular-season games ahead before playoffs. But as we prepare for the NBA's return, the Sixers are confident based on what they've seen so far, which makes the new-look highly intriguing.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_