While Bryant’s floor-spacing offers Tyrese Maxey vital lane access, his porous rim protection threatens to undermine Philadelphia's bench. The Sixers must decide if scoring outweighs defensive stability.
The Philadelphia 76ers need to be careful when evaluating backup center options this offseason.
On paper, NBA champion Thomas Bryant is an understandable name to consider.
Metro Philadelphia recently listed him among the Sixers’ under-the-radar free-agent targets, and the offensive appeal is easy to see. Bryant is not a traditional non-shooting big man who clogs the lane. He can stretch the floor, finish around the basket, and provide some scoring punch in limited minutes.
That could be useful next to Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe. Both guards are at their best when they have room to attack downhill. A center who can pop behind the arc or pull a big away from the paint gives them more space to use their speed and athleticism. Bryant’s shooting would also help bench units that sometimes struggle to generate clean offense.
He is not just a stationary shooter either. Bryant moves decently for a big man, runs the floor, rebounds in his area, and can finish plays created by others. In the regular season, he could give Philadelphia a different offensive look from some of the more limited bigs they have used in the past.
The issue is what happens on the other end.
Bryant’s defensive limitations are difficult to ignore. CourtSketch’s defender breakdown numbers paint a concerning picture, as players have shot a higher field goal percentage when Bryant is the matchup defender. That matches the eye test. Bryant has size and energy, but he is not a high-level rim protector, not especially switchable, and not the kind of backline defender who can clean up mistakes.
Bryant would not solve that problem. In some lineups, he could compound it.
If the Sixers add a backup big, they should ideally be searching for a different defensive profile: someone more athletic, more mobile, and more capable of handling space. Bryant’s shooting would help the offense, but Philadelphia cannot build its frontcourt depth only around scoring.
That does not make Bryant useless. On a cheap deal, he could provide regular-season value as a floor-spacing reserve who gives the second unit some offensive life. There are games where his shooting and energy would help.
But the Sixers have to ask what they need most.
If the goal is spacing, Bryant makes sense. If the goal is finding a defensive anchor behind Embiid, he is a much harder sell.
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Wes Dixon is a contributing writer to 76ersRoundtable. He can be reached at [email protected].
