Three's a crowd: How will Sixers handle frontcourt logjam?

The 76ers are about to embark on an uncomfortable era.

They head into next Wednesday's season-opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder decimated by injuries. Despite this summer's high expectations, the Sixers aren't expected to produce much more than the 15.6 wins they averaged the past three seasons.

And unable to make a trade, they still also have three NBA starting caliber centers in a game where smaller and quicker lineups dominate.

Nerlens Noel (2013), Joel Embiid (2014) and Jahlil Okafor (2015) were the three best draft picks of former team president Sam Hinkie's tenure. However, they have all shown that they're all potential all-star centers in the point guard era of the NBA.

Nowadays, few teams boast true centers. The Sixers, however, will face the tough task of trying to make three very young and talented ones work.

Keeping all three happy shouldn't be a problem at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night. Noel isn't expected to play in the game due to a left groin strain. Okafor is expected to play, but you never know with his right knee soreness.

Embiid's minutes will be restricted to 20 to 24 minutes as he gets back in the mix after missing the past two seasons with right foot surgeries. Meanwhile, another center, Richaun Holmes, could see plenty of action.

But there will come a time when Embiid, Noel and Okafor will be eager to become major contributors. That could be hard to do for Noel and Okafor with Embiid supplanting them as a cornerstone of the team.

Detroit president and coach Stan Van Gundy had to deal with a similar situation when he took over the Pistons on May 14, 2014.

He inherited a franchise that had two dominant centers in Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe. To get their best players on the floor together, Drummond started at center and Monroe got the nod at power forward. Knowing that lineup was a failure, Detroit basically only used it at the start of games and second halves. Other than that, one usually played center while the other rested.

"You have to do what's best for your team and you try to get your best players on the floor," Van Gundy said. "Those kinds of things with two bigs, you are going to have some advantages and some disadvantages. You play through them."

Perhaps, but Van Gundy didn't play through them very long.

The Pistons did not offer Monroe a maximum-salary deal following the 2014-15 season. So he went to Milwaukee.

"As much as it was a little bit tough on the offensive end, the real problem was at the defensive end," Van Gundy said on the Zach Lowe podcast back in August of 2015.

"It was really tough. We put Greg in some tough situations and he did as good a job as he could, but you're asking him to guard stretch-fours like Kevin Love and things like that. You can't sign him to a max, you can't sign Drummond to a big contract eventually and then just say they're going to share the center spot. That's doesn't make any sense."

But that's just with two elite centers. Van Gundy pointed out Saturday that the Sixers have three of them in Embiid, Okafor and Noel in addition to good power forwards. He said that leaves Sixers coach Brett Brown with some tough decisions to make.

As Noel remained sidelined, Brown ended Monday's practice with a twin towers lineup of Embiid and Okafor.

Team president Bryan Colangelo said the Sixers have talked about playing various styles while being undermanned due to injuries, most notably Ben Simmons (right foot Jones fracture) and Jerryd Bayless (left wrist soreness).

"There's no doubt with the bigs that we have with the skill set, size and ability to score and even Joel's ability to run, Richaun's ability to run, Nerlens' ability to run, we can really play a few different styles," Colangelo said. "I think the versatility of the players that we have and their skill set will enable coach to experiment through some of this adversity."

He recalled how San Antonio was able to play with pace and in a half-court setting in the past. The Spurs ran when former post player Tim Duncan wasn't on the floor. Then, they would play a slower and more controlled game when he was in the game.

However, it's not as simple as that.

Duncan is a future Hall of Famer who had rare all-around skills and a selfless personality.

The Sixers have three elite centers who all want to play extended minutes.

The problem with having twin towers is that one of them must play power forward and guard stretch fours.

"Okafor can't do it, and you want Embiid around the basket to be a rim protector because Okafor isn't," said a league executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I don't know. Even on the offensive end, Okafor needs the ball. Embiid needs that ball. With Noel, he doesn't need the ball. He'll get a lot of putbacks."

So the executive said he would pair Noel and Embiid together, with Noel playing center, if the Sixers had to go to a twin-tower lineup.

"Nerlens can guard the fours and keep Embiid around the rim," he said. "And on the offensive end, Embiid can step out more and Nerlens can be more around the basket. . . . It would be an athletic and great defensive combination."

However, Noel is a better defender when he's around the rim.

But there will be plenty of times when only one of the centers is on the court. All of their playing time is sure to take a hit due to that.

That along with the Sixers' inability to make a trade, after publicly stating they intended to do so, has Noel a little disappointed. He's in the final season of his four-year rookie deal. The team hasn't approached him about a contract extension, and the deadline is Oct. 31.

Meanwhile, the Sixers will pick up Embiid's fourth-year and Okafor's third-year options before their deadline, also on Oct. 31.

Okafor said he's happy and believes he and Embiid could be a dominant force as a twin-tower tandem.

But what if they can't? Will the second-year player feel the same way next summer if he's relegated to being nothing more than Embiid's understudy?

Time will tell.

Top centers and power forwards in the league in big-man statistical averages last season, compared to the Sixers' leaders.

kpompey@phillynews.com

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