Sixers' Paul Reed Ready to Shift Focus in Preseason

One player who’s generated high expectations from the Philadelphia 76ers since the hiring of Nick Nurse was the fourth-year center, Paul Reed.

After spending the last three seasons battling for a spot in Doc Rivers’ rotation, Reed gets a fresh start with Nurse, who has already expressed interest in expanding Reed’s role beyond what he had under Rivers for the last couple of years.

So far, Reed’s run under Nurse has been off to a shaky start, which isn’t something the young veteran was willing to shy away from admitting.

“It’s kind of new for me,” Reed told reporters regarding his offensive freedom. “Last season, if I was taking threes, I probably wouldn’t play for like ten games. This year, they want me to shoot the ball more. I’m still making the adjustment. It’s just realizing where my shots are going to come from within the offense.”

Those comments came following Reed’s 2023 preseason debut against the Boston Celtics. In a matchup where Reed started and played for 23 minutes, he attempted eight shots, with just one falling successfully. Of Reed’s five points, three came from the charity stripe.

In his follow-up effort, Reed started once again, checking in for a little under 22 minutes. Putting up nine shots from the field, Reed generated ten points, converting on 56 percent of his field goals. While he was much more efficient in his second outing, all of his points came in the paint, while he struggled from long range.

Regardless of the struggles from the shots he’s taking out of his comfort zone, Reed showed progression in the eyes of Nick Nurse over the two-game stretch. While there’s a lot to be desired still, Nurse was encouraged for the most part.

“He’s been okay, I think he’d probably tell you he would like to play a little bit better,” Nurse told reporters after Wednesday’s game.

“I think tonight, he finally found a few little angles to make some nice finishes that he didn’t find the other night. He’s played hard, played some pretty long stints for him, I think. I want him to be aggressive. I think he’s finding himself with the ball out there, he’s trying to drive it here and there. Again, for him, it’s opportunities and chances to work on some things. I think he found a few kind of sneaky baskets that he makes tonight. That’s good to see.”

For Reed, he’s still finding his fit and discovering his role on the squad. Moving forward, he plans to utilize the tools he excels with in hopes that everything else will fall into place naturally.

“For me, it’s starting the game out with more energy,” Reed told reporters after the game. “Just helping my teammates get better, for real. My teammates help me get better. When I say that, I mean, setting better screens, rolling, and then on the defensive end for sure just talking and having more energy on the defensive end. At the end of the day, we have a team full of dudes who can score the ball pretty well. On the defensive end, that’s where I feel I can make my biggest impact and help the team the most. That’s kind of where I need to be focusing.”

Considering it’s just preseason, Reed is using this time to work out some kinks in his game while the matchups don’t have any impact on the team’s real record. With increased playing time in the starting lineup in the absence of Joel Embiid, Reed isn’t exactly following his typical blueprint of the regular season.

Once the MVP big man returns to the lineup, Reed will get a more realistic look at what his role could look like when the four-game preseason run concludes.