Doc Rivers Doesn't See Sixers as 'Point Guard Oriented'

Last year, the point guard situation was a bit of a mess for the Philadelphia 76ers. For most of the season, Ben Simmons controlled ball-handling duties in the starting lineup while Trey Burke and Raul Neto took turns backing him up.

By the time the Sixers got halfway through last season, former 76ers head coach Brett Brown had begun shuffling things around. Pretty much anybody who played the guard position for the Sixers last year received minutes at the point.

At the time, Brown's decision to rotate guys at the point guard position seemed like it was due to the fact they didn't have a true point guard to back up the starter outside of Raul Neto, who occasionally struggled.

But Doc Rivers' Sixers seems to be trending in a similar direction this season. Rivers won't call Ben Simmons the starting point guard. Instead, he refers to the veteran as the team's "facilitator." And when it comes to the backup point guard position, Rivers isn't looking for a permanent ball handler to come off the bench.

"You know, when we have Seth Curry on the floor [with Ben Simmons], he's one of the ball handlers," Rivers revealed. "Furkan [Korkmaz] is a ball-handler, Shake [Milton]'s a ball handler. The point I guess I'm making is, I don't see this as a point guard-oriented offense. I see this as a flow offense."

At the start of training camp earlier this week, Rivers made it clear the 76ers are in line with the NBA's trend of playing position-less offense. While Simmons will likely be the primary ball-handler throughout the year, Rivers made it a point on Friday that really anybody on the team can run the offense on any given sequence.

"Any guy with the ball can start the offense," Rivers added. "We worked on that today; we had Joel [Embiid] bring it up at one time today. Obviously, [that's something] we wouldn't do. But we were trying to make the point that anybody can start the offense. We're not going to allow the defense to pressure one guy, which takes you out of your offense. So, I think it's going to take time for them to get it all, but I think they're getting it."

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