Four Guards Sounds Fun

AU in disbelief at only having a thumb left when he counts all the guards the Sixers should have next season.

"You need four guards."

That was Spike post-draft, dismissing concerns that adding new third-overall pick V.J. Edgecombe to a rotation that already included Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and (presumably) Quentin Grimes made for needless roster redundancy. "We have four guards, and none of them are 38 years old," Spike continued. "If these are the top four guards in the rotation -- yes I would love one of them to be 6'5 or 6'6, they're not -- but like, you do need four guards... we're fine. It's not like we have nine guards on the team. We could stand to have a couple of guards on the team that aren't 100 years old."

I was struck by the both the straightforwardness of Spike's unequivocal proclamation, and by how much I agreed with it. There was a time when it would have felt ridiculous to say such a thing, like saying you need three running backs on a football team or two bassists in a punk band. But you start to count 'em on the teams that were in the NBA finals this year, and four certainly seems like the minimum buy-in these days. Haliburton, Nesmith, Nembhard, McConnell. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Caruso, Wallace. All guard types, all guard-sized, regardless of what position they technically play -- and all big-minute, starter-caliber players. And that barely even scratches the surface for those teams; OKC probably has at least two guards I've never even heard of coming off the bench who will be in All-Defense discussion next year. To compete at the highest level in the 2025 NBA, you need guards, and lots of 'em.

And now we've actually got 'em. That certainly doesn't sound like a problem to me. Actually that sounds like a lot of fun.

Devotees of The Process will recall times -- not even all that long ago, grand-scheme -- where the Sixers had zero guards, or one, one-and-a-half tops. We were so guardless in 2015-16 that we spent half the season anticipating Kendall Marshall taking the floor like he was the second coming of Isaiah Thomas mixed with the second coming of Pete Maravich. Even during some of the good years, we might've acted like we had a solid two or three guards, but one of those guards was usually a power forward masquerading as a guard, or a non-NBA player masquerading as a guard, or really basically just a theoretical concept masquerading as a guard. Four guards? Four actual guards? Forget about it. Four centers was usually far closer to reality.

TBD how many centers we're going to have next year -- whatever the number ends up being, we can't say decisively at the moment that it's greater than zero -- guards, though, we've now got. I guess we probably won't know until a bit into this week's free agency period whether we're for sure keeping Quentin Grimes, but Daryl has been so explicit in talking about Grimes like he's still gonna be on next year's team that projecting his return isn't so much tea-leaf reading as it is front-page bold-face headline-reading. If so, between him and Jared McCain and Tyrese Maxey and now Edgecombe, that is undeniably four guards. Not "four skilled players who can occasionally dribble," not "four guys under 6'7" with some guard-like abilities who would rather be doing other stuff," not "four guards once they all return from overseas and/or near-death experiences." Four guards, straight up. Wow.

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I can't even picture it really. A starting-caliber backcourt, and then.... another potentially starting-caliber backcourt? No needing to survive minutes with break-even unitaskers? No having to fake backup playmaking from the backcourt by playing through Joel, or pretending Paul George can still be a real iso threat, or by just playing Tyrese 46 minutes a night? So many guards we might not have enough minutes for all of them? So many guards we might actually have a QB controversy about who should be in our first five and who should be coming off the bench? So many guards we finally might be one of those teams that other teams play and go "Where the hell do they get all these fucking guards from??" Could the Sixers actually be allowed to be that team? Will Adam Silver step in and take one of them away for no reason? I feel indiscreet and a little uncouth just writing about it.

Most importantly, the four-guard Sixers would have so many guards that they might actually be able to weather extended time missed from any one of them. Winning in the NBA in 2025 is more a war of attrition than anything; injuries and other weird shit happens to everyone and you just have to hope it doesn't happen at the worst time and that you're better-equipped than most to deal with it when it does. But with four guards, if Jared takes longer than expected to come back from injury? If Tyrese needs a few weeks off from Nick Nurse Minutes? If VJ runs into a rookie wall that's more literal than metaphoric? It's the waiter forgetting to bring a side you didn't really need anyway, it's not them dropping the entire main course on the floor. It's dealwithable.

Now, the Sixers might have some issues next year that are less than dealwithable. Paul George might be cooked. Joel Embiid might be due for a Death Becomes Her-type finale. There are no obvious power forwards on the roster and (despite some very solid MOC ideas) no clear and immediate path towards acquiring one, at least not a good one. These are all real problems — probably way more to come, some of which we likely can't even anticipate yet — and each of them could end up submarining next season if not properly handled.

But for once, "we didn't have enough guards" almost certainly won't be among them. No matter what else happens, we should have plenty of little dudes who can dribble and pass and defend and maybe even shoot. No need to trade for George Hill, no need to scope out and scoop up a bought-out Kyle Lowry, no need to overextend Shake Milton or pretend that Jaden Springer is something he isn't or blindly hope that Cam Payne's hot hand stays boiling indefinitely. We've got the guys to do that stuff, and we've got a lot of them. And they're gonna make a bunch of shots and get a bunch of steals and do a bunch of fun handshakes and be best friends forever and be not that much taller than me and all the other teams are just gonna have to stay coveting. We need them, and we've got them. I can't wait.

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Andrew Unterberger writes for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez, as part of the 'If Not, Pick Will Convey as Two Second-Rounders' section of the site. You can follow Andrew on Twitter @AUGetoffmygold and can also read him at Billboard.