Doc Rivers “Not Scared” to play Embiid and Drummond together for some stupid reason

As the 76ers were preparing to take on a very injured Miami Heat team in South Philadelphia tonight, Doc Rivers continued to show how incompetent of a head coach he can be, by proposing a terrible idea for a few 76ers lineup changes.
In a pre-game presser to media, Doc Rivers stated he wouldn’t be afraid to run a lineup with both Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond on the court. Now before I go into a tirade about why this is one of the stupidest ideas I’ve heard in awhile, let’s give Doc Rivers a chance and look at some of the positives.
Pros to an Embiid/Drummond Lineup
- Rebounding
Now with that out of the way, let me explain to anyone who doesn’t already see this as an asinine idea why this lineup simply won’t work. Both of these guys are 7-footers who struggle to guard outside on the perimeter when switched onto smaller, quicker forwards or guards.
Yes, Joel has shown the ability on a select few possessions to punish a guard assuming he’d be an easy bucket, but a general rule of thumb with basketball is you don’t want your center playing defense outside the paint.
Andre Drummond is even more of a lost cause, as he is routinely exposed in pick-and-roll offense so much some Sixers fans want Doc Rivers to shorten his rotation minutes. While I don’t agree with that extreme response, I do fear the day Drummond is forced outside of the paint because Joel Embiid is already rim protecting. In case it wasn’t clear an obvious, you can’t have two dudes guard the rim. Someone should probably tell Doc Rivers before he does something dumb.
What really makes this even more stupid for the 76ers in general, is that this fanbase has already had to endure a starting five with two borderline centers. We all know how terribly the Horford/Embiid experiment went, and I refuse to let any 76ers fans buy into Doc Rivers’ stupid lineup concepts to endure that pain again.
Man, and I really thought the worst thing I was going to see today from this team was the D’Amelio’s desecrating Wells Fargo Center. Apparently I was wrong.
The real cherry on the top here is Doc Rivers backing up his terrible idea suggesting that lineup was workshopped in training camp. Yea Doc, just because Drummond and Embiid absolutely annihilated the Delaware Blue Coats starting roster over the summer doesn’t justify trying it against an actual NBA team.
Hopefully this was just some sick joke and I won’t have to address this concept again, but I promise if this lineup sees the light of day this will not be the last you hear from me about it.
Mandatory Credit: Yong Kim