Quick stat snapshot of where the Sixers are after 3 games

[Kobblehead]

3PT FG%: 27th
Total RPG: 30th
APG: 28th
BPG: 23rd

P.J. Tucker doesn't offer much by way of blocks and rebounds. Paul Reed offers a lot by way of blocks and rebounds. Seems like an obvious fix.

Danuel House doesn't offer much by way of assists. Shake Milton offers a lot by way of assists. Seems like an obvious fix.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I thought the plan was to go with more Reee this year. In my opinion he showed that he belonged in rotation.

[Murray_17]

I found more fun the Kobble gimmick of "Maxey isn't really good" last season instead of the new "Let's play Thybulle and Milton" this one.

[the_process]

3PT FG%: 27th
Total RPG: 30th
APG: 28th
BPG: 23rd

P.J. Tucker doesn't offer much by way of blocks and rebounds. Paul Reed offers a lot by way of blocks and rebounds. Seems like an obvious fix.

Danuel House doesn't offer much by way of assists. Shake Milton offers a lot by way of assists. Seems like an obvious fix.

Glenn does not coach by the hot hand or statistical profiles. He coaches by "veteranicity" and contracts.

Meaning Tucker and House will never be out of his rotations no matter how bad they play.

[76ciology]

I found more fun the Kobble gimmick of "Maxey isn't really good" last season instead of the new "Let's play Thybulle and Milton" this one.

I trust a person who changes his mind often than someone who likes to projects himself as all knowing basketball god

[Kobblehead]

I found more fun the Kobble gimmick of "Maxey isn't really good" last season instead of the new "Let's play Thybulle and Milton" this one.

I just think guys we draft and develop should get on the floor over scrub veteran journeyman who suck like House and Tucker. Especially when they bring traits to the table that we're desperately lacking.

[76ciology]

..and why are we playing a lot of George Niang? That was totally unexpected.

I was excited with how we generated a lot of deflections getting transition baskets with Melton, Thybulle and Reed.

..and If Embiid is not in shape then why not slowly ramp up his minutes and usage instead of relying too heavily on him

If a lot of our defense and rebounding lies with Embiid, then just simply play our starting unit less minutes then play those 5 man units that got you back in the game during the fourth qtrs of the bucks and spurs games more minutes.

The entire reason why we have this much depth is to be flexible, rather than rigid. So we can adjust based on what life dealt us with.

[Negrodamus]

Probably should have signed Kyle Anderson, a defensive minding SF/PF who has on ball capabilities including distribution. If the intention is to have Maxey, Harden, and Embiid score the bulk of the points, might as well have a guy who can also get them baskets too.

[Kobblehead]

..and why are we playing a lot of George Niang? That was totally unexpected.

I was excited with how we generated a lot of deflections getting transition baskets with Melton, Thybulle and Reed.

..and If Embiid is not in shape then why not slowly ramp up his minutes and usage instead of relying too heavily on him

If a lot of our defense and rebounding lies with Embiid, then just simply play our starting unit less minutes then play those 5 man units that got you back in the game during the fourth qtrs of the bucks and spurs games more minutes.

The entire reason why we have this much depth is to be flexible, rather than rigid. So we can adjust based on what life dealt us with.

Niang's minutes have been cut in half. He was a 22 mpg player last year and is playing just 11 this year.

And the reason why he was forced back into the rotation is because he's the only plus shooter we have that puts up volume.

[76ciology]

Melton
Harden
Tucker
Tobias
Embiid

Maxey
Harden
Tucker
Reed
Embiid

Maxey
Harden
Tobias
Reed
Embiid

Those are your only 3 options for the starting unit.

Tucker is short, so you need size
Maxey is a liability, so you need way more size

[Kobblehead]

Probably should have signed Kyle Anderson, a defensive minding SF/PF who has on ball capabilities including distribution. If the intention is to have Maxey, Harden, and Embiid score the bulk of the points, might as well have a guy who can also get them baskets too.

Slow Mo has been, all three, a tremendous rebounder, passer, and defender his whole career. He would have brought so many traits to the table and sured up so many areas of weakness, despite his athletic and shooting deficiencies.

There's not enough multi-tool players in our rotation right now (many of them are on the roster, but on the bench).

[DCasey91]

Which poster said shooting wasn’t the issue?...

We need another facilitator as well (Rubio would be fantastic), multiple wings, shooters, a bench

Might as well build again lol.

Blocks aren’t as important nowadays with the space of the 3ball. Rebounding on the other hand is the second most important facet of the game. There’s a trend but the past 5 or so champs have crushed contested/O rebounds numbers.


Established vet players that should be here:

- Hayward
- Barnes
- Slomo
- Rubio
- Love
- Hart
- KCP

I’d like any of them. They still have the quality

[Murray_17]

Which poster said shooting wasn’t the issue?...

I said it and i still think it isn't...

If you look at the current chart, The Warriors are 23th and the Cavs are shooting an unsustainable 47%... we have that ranking mostly based on how badly we shot against the Bucks. That's too much variance to take any real conclusion based on it, especially when in one of those games we shot 39% on big volume against the best defense in the league

Stuff like setting plays early in the clock, our transition defense or how to set plays without Harden on the floor are real concerns based on how the team looks. I would also love to see us take more 3 FGA which is easily fixable.

Can shooting become an issue? for sure, but i can't say for sure without having enough of a sample to really say that's the problem, especially when there are a lot of other problems that jump to the eye immediately

[DCasey91]

That’s fair enough Murray_17 it’s early so the sample is null invoid but my overall problem with the team is the list itself, I think it’s even more flawed than when we had Ben on it imo.

For all of Bens faults he did cover up quite a few list deficiencies.

Also we don’t even have one out and out shooter that would shoot the 3 8 times if given the chance. It’s ultra important today because then you always start the game 4 vs 4 no matter how bad your list is.

Embiid had 2 at all times (ROCO/JJ , Seth/Green) I do seriously believe that’s going to the biggest thing missing especially for Embiid.

ROCO/Green - Protoypical 3+D plug in and play wing, helps transition which we are horrible at now

JJ/ Curry - Release, the nuke, super dangerous outlet on the outside that don’t need the ball to automatically create space, Harris can shoot threes but not close to the way these two operated in and also doesn’t create space by sheer virtue of being on the floor.


It’s going to be so easy crowding him when versing better teams.

Besides Embiid, Maxey, Harden I do think everyone else is actually very very limited, barely playable, or not playable at all. There just isn’t a quality skill set that you can bank on, don’t even get me started on the youth investment which there isn’t any.


The ideal setup would be something like this:

Harden
Bridges/ROCO/Green
Hart/Hayward
Love/Gallo
Embiid

Offensive maestro PG, 2 wings (one as the secondary facilitator), pure stretch 4 that can shoot for 20 with 10 dribbles lol both are among the best stretch 4’s in the league literally perfect fit, and Embiid focusing on being DPOY. That for me is the ideal setup.

[Murray_17]

Also we don’t even have one out and out shooter that would shoot the 3 8 times if given the chance. It’s ultra important today because then you always start the game 4 vs 4 no matter how bad your list is.

Embiid had 2 at all times (ROCO/JJ , Seth/Green) I do seriously believe that’s going to the biggest thing missing especially for Embiid.

ROCO/Green - Protoypical 3+D plug in and play wing, helps transition which we are horrible at now

JJ/ Curry - Release, the nuke, super dangerous outlet on the outside that don’t need the ball to automatically create space, Harris can shoot threes but not close to the way these two operated in and also doesn’t create space by sheer virtue of being on the floor.

I mean, outside of Seth and Danny we didn't have too much shooting either last year (until the harden trade) or two years ago. Both of those guys took 5 3's a game, not 8. And Danny took 4 3's per game last year

Maxey is already averaging 4 from last year on great percentages and it should go up this year, Harden took close to 7 3's per game last year. House took 3 3's a game last year and 6 3's per 36, Melton took 5 3's a game on a decent percentage last year.


One of the issues here is why are those guys (Melton/House) taking less 3 than in the previous season, why are Maxey's percentages down? My first impression is the offense doesn't get open looks for those shooters and we're forcing Maxey and Harden to take shots against the clock.

A lot of it can be variance, and also can be the design of the offense. Shooting or spacing problems? let me doubt it, the previous numbers simply don't reflect this.

We should also be spreading more shots for those guys instead of making Harden/Embiid/Tobias/Maxey take 90% of the available shots. There is no point in having spacing if none of your spacers are involved in the offense.

[DCasey91]

Your forgetting none of them operated like Green/ROCO or Seth/Curry does that’s the huge difference at play here. It isn’t about averages it’s about the threat on and off the ball. All 4 would shoot the thing if left open, everything was pre setup only Seth needed rhythm but he was also the best threat on the outside not close.

You say we didn’t have a lot of shooting last season I beg to differ. We had Seth, him alone already makes you an unbelievable outside threat. The quality is as we’ve seen the highest outside of his freak brother. He was and still is a nuclear threat. No secret both him and JJ had career years because how perfectly they went together with Embiid and how much it helped the big oaf.

I see Maxey’s percentages on the long ball dipping as everyone got a beneficial boost from the excess space leftover from both our starting wing/shooter.

Maxey isn’t a pure shooter which is easily recognised by his shooting stroke.

It’s amusing to me we have less space post Ben.

We have two hyper heliocentric players with too many ill fitting pieces.

[Murray_17]

Your forgetting none of them operated like Green/ROCO or Seth/Curry does that’s the huge difference at play here. It isn’t about averages it’s about the threat on and off the ball. All 4 would shoot the thing if left open, everything was pre setup only Seth needed rhythm but he was also the best threat on the outside not close.

???

sorry but i don't see how a guy like Melton that shoot 5 times a game is not shooting the ball when he's open. I just don't follow your point. Especially when those are the same averages of Seth and Danny

I see Maxey’s percentages on the long ball dipping as everyone got a beneficial boost from the excess space leftover from both our starting wing/shooter.

Are you saying Maxey cannot benefit from the space created by a Harden/Embiid line up? sorry, again, I don't follow this logic.

Maxey isn’t a pure shooter which is easily recognised by his shooting stroke.

If anything his stroke suggests the contrary to me, he looks super stable shooting, his motion is great as it's his balance and the use of his feet.

The sample size of his shooting also suggests this, as it does how well he has shoot while open.

[Kobblehead]

Shooting is definitely likely to become a season-long thing with our current personnel.

Last year, we had Green, Curry, and Niang (all 40% three, 80% free throw guys) as our primary role player shooters.

Melton, House, and Tucker are far less skilled than those guys (mid 30s from three, mid-70s from free throw).

[Murray_17]

Shooting is definitely likely to become a season-long thing with our current personnel.

Last year, we had Green, Curry, and Niang (all 40% three, 80% free throw guys) as our primary role player shooters.

Melton, House, and Tucker are far less skilled than those guys (mid 30s from three, mid-70s from free throw).

We still have Niang and Danny didn't shoot over 40% last year either....In fact Melton shoot around the same percentages as Danny if you take volume on account...Same with House.

Again, shooting is also by product of how many looks you create, what the stats of the last 3 games are saying it's not that we lack shooting but that we haven't created enough good looks for our shooters.

[DCasey91]

Murray’s_17 numbers and the way a player plays are vastly different.

It’s weird but lately I’ve been agreeing with Kobble more and more our shooting will become more and more of a problem as the season goes on.

Harden/Embiid aren’t space creators both are huge revolvers. Seth created a ton of space by literally stepping foot on the court. You can leave guys like Melton/House/Tucker alone can you see the difference now?

Also Maxey has a push shot I’d be surprised if he shoots 37% from 3 this year. A lot more attention and a noticeably worse offensive list.

Using per 36 for role players is wrong btw. They are role players after all.

You honestly don’t believe you can see the difference between Seth as our role player vs say Melton/House it’s a huge difference.

Seth - 5.6 attempts, 2.2 makes, 40%, 15ppg. Elite numbers
Danny - 5.4 attempts, 2 makes, 39.5%

It’s pretty much the same for JJ/Roco

Those are serious outlets imo. I don’t think PJ + whoever is going to yeet it 10+ times a game, make more than 4 at basically 40%.

We have nowhere near the caliber of that.

Yes they are limited players but most versions of an Embiid centric offence had shooting I just think it’s the wrong approach to go all in on building around him as the primary focus. If you wanted that then the first thing to get would be a primary facilitator in the Rubio mould, because you don’t want Embiid controlling every part of the offence especially facilitating.

If you want a more in depth look at our oncoming shooting woes research adjusted shooting and nothing else (mostly 3par). It’s an eye opener. We lost a lot of structural flexibility and outside play.