Why Was There a Lack of Glenn Robinson on Thursday?

On Thursday, the Philadelphia 76ers returned to the court as a team for the first time since the NBA All-Star break. Considering they only had two games to play with their latest acquisitions from the trade deadline, Thursday's game against the Brooklyn Nets was supposed to be a real taste of what the team looks like when Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson get a reasonable amount of minutes.

Thursday's matchup against the Nets was the third game Robinson appeared in. For Burks, it was his second. With Al Horford resuming his role as a player that would come off the bench, and Ben Simmons out with a back injury, it seemed possible the Sixers could potentially start both of their new guys.

Considering Burks had only played 14 minutes for the Sixers heading into Thursday, Brett Brown figured it would be best for him to come off the bench since that's what his role would be moving forward. As for Robinson, he got the starter's nod, and could potentially remain in the starting lineup for the remainder of the year.

However, just because Robinson started on Thursday, didn't mean he played a ton. Burks, who came off the bench as a guard, checked in nearly 30 minutes. Robinson, on the other hand, played only 14 minutes against Brooklyn, despite having two solid outings already for the Sixers. During his short amount of time on the floor, Robinson was a plus-one, shooting two-for-three from the field, totaling for four points.

Clearly, opportunities were lacking for Robinson, who played the least amount of minutes on the team along with Shake Milton on Thursday. It was a puzzling move for Brett Brown to start the veteran, but keep him out for a majority of the game. So what exactly went into the thought process, and will this be a trend moving forward?

During his postgame press conference, Brett Brown made it clear that Robinson didn't exactly do anything to deserve a lack of playing time. In fact, he called Robinson's outing on Thursday "solid." Unfortunately, the Sixers' head coach just went into a different direction with his rotations, which kept the veteran forward off the floor.

"We got into that sort of, flow where there were times I wanted more of a scoring punch," the Sixers' head coach explained. "So I rolled out Furkan Korkmaz a little bit to see if he could get going. Alec [Burks], we rolled out as a scorer. [Then], we flipped offense and defense and went with Matisse Thybulle. I wouldn't say Glenn did anything wrong."

Does Robinson's lack of minutes in the last matchup show a reflection of how it could be moving forward? Probably not. Brett Brown admitted he was experimenting with the point guard position against Brooklyn, and the rotations got erratic. Now that he has seen who is struggling and who is worth more playing time, the rotations can begin to normalize. That's good news for Robinson, who has proven he belongs on the floor.

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