The Sixers Have Found Their SECRET Weapon…

The Sixers Have Found Their SECRET Weapon…

The Philadelphia 76ers continue to have a hole at the front court position with several of their highest paid players remaining on the sideline, but one player has made the most of the potential opportunity with Dominic Barlo grabbing the role by the reigns and cementing his spot as a key part on this Sixers team. The two-way forward returned to the Sixers lineup for the first time after suffering a laceration that held him out after the first two games of the season, but picked up right where he left off and is cementing his place as a necessary part of this Sixers team. Do want to break down exactly what he brings to the roster, why I think he’s a huge X factor regardless of how healthy this Sixers team does get and what exactly I see that role shaping up to be. Now, to flash back a little bit here, let’s not forget that in the opening two games of the season that Dominic Barlo was in this Sixers starting lineup. And that is a big deal for a v variety of reasons here. For starters, obviously, we’ve talked about the power forward role for quite some time with this Sixers team that it has been several years in which there’s been adequate power forward play. I guess I can give you Garan Yavelli last year, although within the context of the team, we know what a disaster last year was across the board. But the point being that has been a position of weakness and the Sixers took a different approach with Dominic Barlo being a key part of it. And when in one of those opportunities in which he did get receive that starting role, we saw him produce a career-high output with 13 points, eight rebounds, and five assists here. Played 34 minutes of action in this matchup here. This ultimately coming in the one-point victory over the Boston Celtics here. Shot four of eight from the field and then stepped back in the starting lineup for the matchup with the Clippers. Now, to dive into the box score of this matchup here, it obviously came in a 114 to 105 loss. But what I want you to particularly notice about this box score here is Trendan Waford was the guy that got the start in the first half for this Sixers team, but ended up clocking only 15 minutes of action. And the reason for why that was the or 14 minutes of action, excuse me. And the reason that was the case is peak to the bench here and Dominic Barlo logging 29 minutes of action tallying 10 points, eight rebounds, three assists, had two blocks as well there. And I do think this can be a trend that continues. Now to reflect on exactly what happened with Dominic Barlo as he played the significant workload in that opening matchup against the Boston Celtics. And once again to reflect on that, we’re talking 34 minutes of action with a strong box score output. Then in game two against the Charlotte Hornups Hornets, he picks up a laceration on his right elbow. When it happened at the time, I didn’t blink an eye. I don’t think anyone did that. That is essentially a cut, not a big deal thing. But then flash forward and we’re seeing him in a full sling on the bench and missing several weeks of the season here. Now, Barlo did his best to explain the overall situation now that he has returned and faced the media a little bit. and what he said exactly there. The article writes up, Dominic Barlo, who started the first two games of the season, has not played since October 25th due to a right elbow laceration. It makes sense to miss a few games, but Barlo ended up missing nine straight games before B finally being cleared to return against the Pistons. And Barlo says, quote, I had a cut in Abu Dhabi and it just never had a chance to heal. Barlo said at shoot around on Friday morning, it just swelled and the cut couldn’t fully heal, so I had to get a procedure on it. Now, the bottom line is this is a bizarre injury. This is one that I throw in the category of Sixers organization tied or you do not see in most commonplace NBA situations here, but the biggest takeaway is that he’s back and ready to pick up where he left off. Now, in tonight’s performance directly and to highlight his stats directly here, we are talking and shout to Aaron Grugan who once again is one of the best uh Sixers follows on Twitter. Here she tweets, Sixers lost against a short-handed Piston teams and that sucked. What didn’t suck was Dominic Barlo in his return from injury. 10 points, eight rebounds, five of which were offensive, three assists, two blocks. Great intuition and timing on the boards, defense and passing. Shot well, too. And here were some of his best plays as she clips up highlights here. The play that popped off the page to me was the second play that he was in the game. And what happened in that very situation there was the shot went up on the defensive end. A Pistons player had like a clean chance of the rebound. There were two of them sort of involved in the play. Dominic Barlo skies over, reaches across and pulls the ball back looking like prime Dennis Rodman and then is swinging his elbows around fighting between three Pistons players and ultimately draws a foul. That is a level of rebounding commitment that no one else on this Sixers roster possesses. And I understand you can spit the raw rebounding stats for Andre Drummond. Andre Drummond is a huge dude, a dude that is not skilled as far as a catch radius. He is certainly big, wide, is gonna box out and do all those things, but he does not have like the soft hands to take in in the way that Dominick Barlo does. And there’s a level of athleticism and energy that he possesses that straight up pops on the court. And beyond that, this is not an Andre Drummond situation where he’s just trying to tip it back and get put backs that what’s really impressive about Barlo specifically is he will pull in an offensive rebound and his first instinct is I got to find a shooter. I got to kick it out to the perimeter, find a guy that is a more talented scorer than myself here. That is an incredible instinct to have as a guy on the glass here and something that 100% plays within this Sixers team in that victory over the Celtics that was put on full display that the Sixers scored on every possession that he pulled in an offensive rebound. That is not going to be a trend that continues over the length of the season just based on shooting variance there. But the fact that the clear effects were seen from it, I think is really important to note. And again, the biggest or most telling part about all this is the fact that Nick Nurse had the confidence to inject him in the starting lineup at that rate. That’s a level of trust that you just do not see with two-way players at such an early rate there. So, hat tip to Nick Nurse for trusting him and huge hat tip to Dominic Barlo for continuing it there. And I do want to note, I think this is something that is going to continue that as Paul George gets healthy, as Joel Embiid gets healthy. And I did want to pull up this quote from my guy Tony Jones here who’s done doing a pretty nice job covering the Sixers to this part. I think he sums this up well as he says, “Don Barlo is an apex rebounder on both ends of the floor. Can actually make secondary plays and has a per and has made perfect defensive rotation so far tonight. How is this guy not on a standard NBA contract?” And I led coming into this season with the prediction and the take that he would be upgraded to a standard deal by the conclusion of the year. He is certainly on the fast track for that. And it was nice to see that he has not, you know, like kind of lost a step or been thrown off or the timing was not the same after missing those nine consecutive games. It obviously is not the length of the time of a guy like Jared McCain, but we’re seeing that as an example of a guy who’s not been able to exactly pick up where he left off from an injury standpoint. Now, I did not expect a laceration to have the same effects as a meniscus tear and torn UCL, but the point still being that he looks like the guy that he did in the first two games of the season. The reason that that skill set is so incredibly important on this Sixers team is directly tied to the Joel Embiid conversation and I have stood 10 toes down on the take that I understand Joel Embiid is not what he once was that he is no longer a clear-cut top five player in the NBA. He likely will never be the quite to that level, one of the, you know, top how whatever number you want to cap it at players in the league. But Joel Embiid is still going to be a huge part of this Sixers team. And even as fun as this youthful energy, this run and gun, this transition team with all this athleticism is, how good is this team really is still being determined? They’ve now dropped to seven and five after loss to the Pistons. And when you look at the hierarchy of the rest of the NBA, and particularly when we get to the play style of the postseason, where the style of play slows down, where every possession matters a little bit more, having a guy that can roll out of bed and get you 25 in the half court in the way that Joel Embiid will is necessary. With that comes making up for some of what he’s lost. And by that I mean having a guy that can protect the rim, having a guy that can rebound at a high level. These are things that Dominic Barlo can do and I think is going to be incredibly complimentary to Embiid’s skill set directly. If Joel Embiid just wants to be the score first guy who can still do that and be the offensive engine and Dominic Barlo is capable of taking on some of that defensive slack that he did lose there. That’s something that makes a ton of basketball sense to me. Now, this is going to be a work in progress. It’s not something that just clicks from day one. But Barlo is doing everything possible to earn role in the Sixers team and his skill set is at a clear position and style of need for what the Sixers are looking for. So shout out to Dominic Barlo for asserting himself for making the most of the opportunity. Do you think Nick Nur deserves some direct credit for showing the trust in him right from game one this season and for him regaining his spot? I do think and to pull up the the box four once again that sort of the game plan going into this game was they were going to ease Barlo back into things and right away it was shown there’s a pop that this team needs and we got to make sure that he is on the floor. So shout out to Nick Nurse for adjusting in that direction hasn’t been quite the level of adjustments that I would have liked to see from Nick Nurse in recent games but this was one that I did want do think deserves praise there. So shout out to Dominic Barlo for making the Sixers make a decision in the first place. Shout out to Nick Nurse for adjusting accordingly and shout out to you guys for tuning in this video here. So, do want to hear what you guys are thinking in the comments below about Dominic Barlo specifically. I am fired up. I think this is going to be a huge X-factor type player for the entirety of the Sixers season and cannot wait to see what he grows into. So, let me know if you guys are on the same page as me. Make sure you’re dropping your thoughts in the comments below, hitting a like on the video, dropping a subscribe. I’ll be back talking to you next time right here on Sixers Digest. base.

The Sixers Have Found Their SECRET Weapon…

Dominick Barlow is back from his brief injury absence and has picked up right where he left off. Sean Barnard highlights what to make of his play and what his role in the Sixers lineup will be moving forward.

#nba #sixers #philadelphia76ers

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