5 things we’ve learned from the Philadelphia 76ers’ win streak

3. The bench is thin, but solid

There was real concern when Philadelphia traded away Mike Muscala, Wilson Chandler and Landry Shamet in the trade to get Tobias Harris from the Los Angeles Clippers. Coupled with the trade of Robert Covington and Dario Saric to the Raptors for Jimmy Butler, and the season-ending injury of Furkan Korkmaz, the bench was depleted.

The 76ers had hoped to pick up one or two players whose contracts were bought out by teams playing for next year. Last season, picking up Marco Belinelli and Ersan Ilyasova after the Atlanta Hawks bought out their contracts was a big boost for the bench and the team. The Sixers had no such luck this year.

There is no question the bench is thin, but Brett Brown has found a nice rotation that is working. Mike Scott, a veteran power forward who came with Tobias Harris in the trade with the Clippers, is the first one off the bench. During the six-game win streak, he’s averaged over 22 minutes a game.

James Ennis III, who came over in a trade with the Houston Rockets, has gotten a lot of minutes during the win streak, averaging 18.5 minutes a game.

No one else on the bench come close to the minutes that Scott and Ennis are getting. In fact, in the statement wins over the Bucks and the Celtics, only T.J. McConnell and Boban Marjanovic got any minutes at all. That will probably result in a nine-player rotation for much of the playoffs. Five of those nine players were not with the team when the season started, so this truly is a new 76ers team.