
Prior to this season, the decision to stagger Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons' playing time was the driving force behind everything.
Before the Philadelphia 76ers acquired Jimmy Butler in November of last year, the former was a huge star in the city. To avoid having fewer than two starters on the court at the same time, Brett Brown used the advice of his analytics staff to aggressively stagger Simmons and Embiid. With their 52 wins in the 2017–18 season, Philadelphia's starting five outscored opponents by an incredible 11.4 points per 100 possessions. However, the starters made up just 25.7 percent of their total minutes, which ranked 19th.
When Butler was acquired in the following year, his pick-and-roll playmaking prowess and dislike of taking outside shots mirrored some of Simmons' on-court traits, but not all. Embiid and Butler started playing more frequently in lineups without Simmons in the second round of the playoffs against the Raptors. When Simmons wasn't on the court, the Sixers' offense soared to a new level of excellence.
A similar predicament arose two years ago when Brown attempted to fix an unfixable problem by switching Simmons from point guard to power forward, benching Horford, and starting Shake Milton in place of him. Horford could theoretically fill in for Embiid when Joel is resting and give Simmons some breathing room. The Sixers were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round due to Simmons' knee injury.
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