CAMDEN, N.J. — By necessity, the Philadelphia 76ers have worked through lineups this preseason with non-traditional centers.

By necessity the last few years, they’ve gotten plenty of practice expressing their depth at the center position. At least this month’s change has nothing to do with Joel Embiid.

In what may end up a long-term boon, the 76ers have used much of their first three preseason games getting looks at depth options at the pivot. It arms them for the season ahead to know what things may look like with guys like Dean Wade, Jabari Walker and even LeBron James in the middle.

While Embiid has been healthy, none of the other centers on the roster are.

Adem Bona sprained his foot playing for Turkey and is back only to partial practice participation.

Tacko Fall, a candidate for a two-way spot, injured his hip the first week of training camp.

Ariel Hukporti tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter of the first preseason game.

Even the first option for a forward to shift to center, Dominick Barlow, has been limited with a back issue.

So in last week’s preseason games against the Knicks and Celtics, Walker and Wade took shifts in the lane. They approach it with diametrically opposed tendencies.

Wade has the height at 6-9 but is a perimeter player by temperament. Walker has the grit and aptitude on the boards, but it has to compensate for him being just 6-7. Yet both could find niches.

“I played a little bit of small ball five, spent a bunch of last year and a little bit in the past,” Wade, signed as a free agent from the Cavaliers this summer, said Monday at practice. “I’m pretty comfortable there. My biggest emphasis is when I’m at the five, I can kind of see what’s going on on the defense, and I try to be as loud as I can and communicate.”

Wade has consistently averaged between 19 and 22 minutes each of the last six seasons in Cleveland at no more than 6.0 points per game. A career 36.7 percent 3-point shooter, the 76ers hope to open shooting volume for him this year to augment his length on defense.

That advantage gets negated when Wade, at 6-9 and 228 pounds, has to match up with someone like the 7-foot, 240-pound Mitchell Robinson, as he did Saturday against the Celtics.

Wade calls it “all-out war” defensively. Which could come at a price on his nightly offensive production, not to mention wear and tear as the 82-game marathon unfolds.

“My whole thought process, especially against Mitchel Robinson or (Andre) Drummond, is as long as they don’t get the rebound, that’s OK,” he said. “I’m not going to get it, but as long as they don’t get it, that is OK. Somebody else is going to come and clean up.

“On the offensive end, I think (rebounding) is easier as a small-ball five because you’re kind of out away from everybody to get the rebounds that pop out, especially crashing from the free-throw line. You get a long of those kinds of long rebounds. You’ve just got to read where it’s going, and then it’s just battling.”

Walker knows the challenge well. At a sharp-elbowed 6-7 and 235, he rebounds better than his size. And when he’s matched with a fellow power forward, he’ll win a lot of those battles.

But when forced to rebound against a 7-footer, the physical gulf is tough to overcome.

“I feel like I’m one of the stronger fours, and I haven’t had an issue with guarding the fours or rebounding at that position,” Walker said. “I think I stood out at that, but moving to that five spot, you’ve got to hit earlier. When you’re at the four spot, I think I have enough strength to hit and then go to pursue the rebound. But at the five, it’s more so, OK, just hit these guys and talk to my teammates, like you guys have got to pursue. It’s a big task. You’ve got to be earlier with your physicality.”

Walker has an edge on the offensive side, where he can drag bigs out to the perimeter.

His primary offseason emphasis has been trusting a promising 3-point shot. He shot 38.9 percent on 3.5 attempts per 36 minutes in 2024-25 with Portland, then earned a standard contract after signing as a two-way with the 76ers by hitting on 33.7 percent of 4.5 attempts/36.

“I think obviously the jump shot opens it up,” Walker said. “You want to be able to space the floor. It’s one of my advantages. So I think being more confident in my shot this year, I can space the floor a lot better, and it just makes it easier for my teammates.”

The workload for a 76ers center is always a highly scrutinized mystery.

Embiid has played 95 games total over the last three years. The team allowed Andre Drummond to walk in free agency, getting younger and more dynamic with Hukporti to complement Bona. After Hukporti’s season-ending injury, though, they are thinner than last year.

Wade was brought in as a wing spacer, and while he can still do that as a small-ball five, it wasn’t the first choice for his role when acquired.

“When I’m the small-ball five, my biggest advantage is my spacing,” Wade said. “So there’s really no reason for me to roll. I try to stretch the five out and keep him on the edge of the paint so it’s a little more spread out. But that’s doesn’t change too much.”

Rebounding was already an area of concern. The 76ers were 21st in rebounding percentage last year and 26th in defensive rebounding. They got waxed by the Knicks in that category in their postseason sweep and only beat the Celtics once they minimized the rebounding divide.

Adding Hukporti was a logically sound remedy. But without him, the plan has to adjust.