Big Man Paul Reed Identified As Best Kept Secret On Sixers Roster

The Philadelphia 76ers have a deep roster led by Joel Embiid and James Harden and a lot of solid offseason additions such as PJ Tucker and Danuel House Jr. as well as De’Anthony Melton. On paper, there are a lot of recognizable players on this roster that have made their mark on the NBA.

However, there are some players on every roster that aren’t as easily identifiable. These players are the best-kept secret types in the NBA.

Bleacher Report identified that best-kept secret on Philadelphia’s roster and they gave a lot of love to Paul Reed who is set to enter his third season and be the backup to Embiid:

The 6’9″, 210-pounder doesn’t bring much size to the center position, but he compensates for that with skill and spring-loaded athleticism. He has playmaking ability at both ends, and he has barely broken a sweat at this level yet (479 career minutes over two seasons).

Some of that lack of exposure is on him, since it’s hard to get a ton of burn with a career average of 6.5 fouls per 36 minutes. Given his other per-36-minutes marks, though—15.3 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.2 steals, 2.1 assists and 2.0 blocks—it’s easy to get carried away imagining what he could do if he ever gets those fouls under control.

It will be interesting to see if Reed will be given the backup center spot to Embiid right away. He showed flashes of potential in the playoffs, but he had a lot of foul trouble in the postseason and it will be on him to fix all of this heading into the 2022-23 season.