Originally Posted by PhillyPhanatic

As of right now this is what the Sixers bench is looking like:

John Salmons, Kevin Ollie, Steven Hunter, Michael Bradley. We know that Louis Williams will split time between the NBDL and NBA, but we don't know where Deng Gai and Shavlik Randolph fit into the puzzle at this point (if they do at all).

If they're all on the roster as the season starts, that leaves the team with another spot to fit a player on the roster (two, if Jamal Mashburn would just go and retire already). This bench as-is definitely presents a problem, because there's only three guys off of the bench that you know is capable of going out on the floor and being somewhat productive. There's a chance that any of the rookies could surprise us, but Michael Bradley is a stiff.

I think what makes the bench stand out for being so terrible, is the fact it was one of the team's strongpoints (despite it being mishandled) at the beginning of last season.. the bench at the end of last season was strong compared to this one. Of course things happened (Willie Green's injury) that was out of the team's hands, and McKie and Jackson had to be moved to improve the team's financial status. Those are understandable.

The question I really must ask is where's the bench scoring coming from? Is John Salmons ready to step up and be the guy the Sixers thought they were getting when they drafted him? Also how many of these players will be able to play healthy minutes to rest the starters? Just looking at the team as it's assembled now seems like Cheeks is going to have to play with an extremely tight rotation (think 8) throughout most of the season, which would lead to the team breaking down when it comes to the stretch run.