CAMDEN, N.J. — The Philadelphia 76ers have been missing starting power forward Dominick Barlow for a bit now as he works his way back from a right elbow laceration. In his place, coach Nick Nurse has turned to Jabari Walker and the forward on a two-way deal has played short minutes, but has given good production.
In 13.9 minutes a night, Walker’s averaging 3.0 points and 3.3 rebounds while being a tough defender against ball-handlers. For example, in Cleveland on Wednesday, Walker bodied up Cavs star Evan Mobley and stopped him from getting to the basket, and he has had some putbacks on the offensive glass.
“He’s had a couple good moments of–one of my favorite things he does is he chests guys,” Nurse said at practice on Friday. “When guys start taking him off the dribble, he cuts them off, and plays some physical 1-on-1 defense. Obviously, he’s on the glass here and there and getting us extra possessions. A couple putbacks.”
Walker is in his fourth season in the league after three seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers and he has not been a situation such as this one on a team that’s trying to win in this league. The Blazers were in the middle of a rebuild while the Sixers are trying to win and contend for a title. There are things he still needs to learn.
“I mean, he needs some experience and he needs minutes,” Nurse finished. “You can see some inexperience out there, for sure. Again, he probably didn’t expect to be where he’s at right now. None of us probably expected where he is as far as in the rotation and all that stuff. He’s doing it and he continues to work hard and we’re continuing to show him a bunch of film, and he asks a bunch of questions of what he can do to help better and we’ll just keep trying to grow him.”
For the moment, Walker is Philadelphia’s starting power forward. At least until Dominick Barlow and Paul George can return from injuries. The Sixers will look to him to be the one who has to give them good production from the 4-spot in an effort to keep things moving in the right direction as Philadelphia looks to find some consistency on either end of the floor.