Quick stat snapshot of where the Sixers are after 3 games

[Ferry Avenue]

The Sixers are:
26th in DRTG
28th in reb% (tied for worst oreb%)
25th in deflections
28th in loose balls recovered
30th in putbacks (by a huge margin)
30th in transition points scored (offense)
28th in transition points scored against
30th in transition PPP against

Gotta love that effort so far.

Again that's an effort problem, and as attested to as well by the videos above.

You have to wonder if the players believe they'll fare better if an assistant coach takes over for Rivers.

[76ciology]

The Sixers are:
26th in DRTG
28th in reb% (tied for worst oreb%)
25th in deflections
28th in loose balls recovered
30th in putbacks (by a huge margin)
30th in transition points scored (offense)
28th in transition points scored against
30th in transition PPP against

Gotta love that effort so far.

Again that's an effort problem, and as attested to as well by the videos above.

You have to wonder if the players believe they'll fare better if an assistant coach takes over for Rivers.

Changing coach won’t make PJ Tucker add 6” of height and 12” of vertical leap.

[FlyingArrow]

The Sixers are:
26th in DRTG
28th in reb% (tied for worst oreb%)
25th in deflections
28th in loose balls recovered
30th in putbacks (by a huge margin)
30th in transition points scored (offense)
28th in transition points scored against
30th in transition PPP against

Gotta love that effort so far.

Again that's an effort problem, and as attested to as well by the videos above.

You have to wonder if the players believe they'll fare better if an assistant coach takes over for Rivers.

Changing coach won’t make PJ Tucker add 6” of height and 12” of vertical leap.

How about 4" and 12"? Giving Paul Reed some minutes at the 4 kind of does that.

[mjkvol]

The Sixers are:
26th in DRTG
28th in reb% (tied for worst oreb%)
25th in deflections
28th in loose balls recovered
30th in putbacks (by a huge margin)
30th in transition points scored (offense)
28th in transition points scored against
30th in transition PPP against

Gotta love that effort so far.

Again that's an effort problem, and as attested to as well by the videos above.

You have to wonder if the players believe they'll fare better if an assistant coach takes over for Rivers.

Changing coach won’t make PJ Tucker add 6” of height and 12” of vertical leap.

No, but it will guarantee he isn't playing 35-38 minutes a night in regular season games.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

At some point Doc has to think about pivoting to Reed. Tucker's not even hitting his threes and if he's not doing that, he's a complete zero on offense. You might as well roll out Thybulle at that point. Sadly, Doc will ride this out...As I said, he'll think about a change, but his stubborn ways will be his ultimate downfall. This WILL be Docs last year in Philly. This is coming from a staunch Doc supporter...I'm personally at my end with him. He's ruined a talented guard in Shake Milton, he's letting homegrown talent like Thybulle, and Reed basically rot on the bench. I know Thybulle has his issues, but can't we at least see if he worked on any of them over the summer? It's an absolute tragedy with Shake...His downfall. Reed showed enough promise to see the floor this year and yet here we are. I don't know how long he'll ride this out. My guess is we'll see some changes around the 10 game mark...I'm at least hoping for that. Team looks awful right now though.

[76ciology]

What good is surrounding Embiid with shooters but they wont be able to get their shots off?

How many times have we seen biid kicking it out to the shooter and the shooter would pass up the jumper?

Thats why I think there should be a balance and we can just prioritize too much on shooting.

The line-up Im looking at right now is Maxey-Melton-Harden-Reed-Embiid. It’s kind of similar to how Cavs and Warriors play a big frontcourt and with LaVert or Klay at SF.

We then can play a Tucker-Tobias at the 4&5, small ball unit.

Start with what we have now.

Let Harden play Rox ball with.
Harden-House-Tobias-Tucker-Harrell

Let Biid play
Maxey-Shake-Melton-Reed-Embiid

Close games with
Maxey-Melton-Harden-Reed-Embiid

[ProcessDoctor]

5 games in we are 9th in ORTG and 26th in DRTG.

[76ciology]

I read that our starting 5 have been playing better. And for ego’s sake, I think we should stick with it.

But we need to make major changes in our in between game units like those Harden lead and Embiid lead units and those units we close the game with.

I think the starting unit can be an OK neutral unit because games usually start slow. We could also see what we have with the starting 5 by who’s hot or who’s not

[FlyingArrow]

At some point Doc has to think about pivoting to Reed. Tucker's not even hitting his threes and if he's not doing that, he's a complete zero on offense.

Tucker is shooting at a great percentage, just not very often. He's at 41.7%... but that's just 5/12.

[76ciology]

One bright spot is Embiid-Harden-Maxey’s scoring numbers and Tobias’ and Melton’s 3pt shooting numbers

Like in the Raps game, Harden can even take a back seat with how Maxey and Biid are shooting so well.

We have the right ingredients but we just have really bad combinations.

We also probably should take a more collective approach where nobody takes the lead or back seat even when you have a hot or cold shooting. This way we can be less predictable on offense

[76ciology]

Read on Twitter

This is the type of player we need with the starters, not Tucker. Someone who is long, athletic, good shot blocker, run the floor and shoot some 3s.

[76ciology]

https://youtu.be/WRVlwdvJj3U

This guy is reading this thread. Has to be

[youngcrev]

Why would you want Paul Reed at the 4 (particularly next to Embiid)? Over Harrell as the backup 5, sure. But all he really does on offense right now is set screens. He makes plays on defense, but he's also kinda all over the place on that end and fouls a ton.

If all you want is a defensive improvement over PJ, slide Tobi to his natural spot at the 4 and put Thybulle out there.

[76ciology]

Why would you want Paul Reed at the 4 (particularly next to Embiid)? Over Harrell as the backup 5, sure. But all he really does on offense right now is set screens. He makes plays on defense, but he's also kinda all over the place on that end and fouls a ton.

If all you want is a defensive improvement over PJ, slide Tobi to his natural spot at the 4 and put Thybulle out there.

Thybulle at the 3 works well with Tobi, problem with that is rebounding. Thybulle with our starters actually has been playing well off the ball as a roll man and cutter, something I believe Reed can play on offense.

But I think the finale here is Reed at the 4 with Embiid, i know were working on that. I think Doc has mentioned it during the offseason and we have seen Reed playing 4 with Bassey.

I see Biid as a 4. Not a 5. Why? Because he’s allergic inside the paint. He doesnt go up for dunks and lobs because of his conditioning and knee issues.

He’s not like SHAQ. He’s more like DIRK.

You look at how he’s playing with Harden and all he does is set weak screens (that forces Harden to pass it back to him), and settle for FT line or corner jumpers.

Reed will solve a lot of issues. It allows you to continue playing a lot of Maxey-Harden pairing with better length on the defensive end to clean up the mess. Unlike Tobi or Tucker, Reed is a professional cutter who prefers cutting rather than jacking up 3s.

Biid’s average FG attempts are 11 ft. Our center is more perimeter oriented than Jimmy Butler. This biid is not the same Biid we saw on his rookie year, he took his perimeter game into another level in the last two years. So right now you have 5 guys outside the paint.

This makes the perimeter too crowded. And now you think of how much teams have been adding length and how slow and predictable we are. What do you get? You see us being able to collapse the defense (raps even doubles on purpose) but they can also recover easily so you end up a lot of iso with the time running out. Dont they say the % of you scoring drops as you go to the end of the shotclock?

On offense, Reed can be a finisher around the rim as a lob threat or a cutter and a finisher in transition (think about how many point blank baskets Tucker missed against the Raps, or how much better we can be in transition defense/offense if Reed is running). Imagine Maxey, Tobi and Reed running at the break with Harden as the playmaker.

Reed and Embiid can clean up the mess of your backcourt while naturally giving more greenlight to Maxey and Harden to lead the offense than this obsolete Biid centric offense that is useless because all the team is going to do is double him while we have short guys who can’t get their shots off with lengthy defenders closing out on them.

What does it look like? Remember the 2018-2019 squad?

Jimmy (harden)-Biid two man game with Biid popping to the elbow. Ben (Reed) at the dunker spot with JJ (Maxey) and Tobi spacing the floor? This is gonna be a more talented version of it.

We can even take it to the final form (in my opinion) of a Maxey-Melton-Harden-Reed-Biid 5 man unit, kind of what the Cavs and Warriors are running now. That gives you a unique advantage of multiple go to options, spacing, size, athleticism and speed.

The problem with not going into direction is you have your 5 man unit that wants to play slow. Thats ok, but where do you see an undersized unit become successful by playing slow?

[ankle420breaker]

Why would you want Paul Reed at the 4 (particularly next to Embiid)? Over Harrell as the backup 5, sure. But all he really does on offense right now is set screens. He makes plays on defense, but he's also kinda all over the place on that end and fouls a ton.

If all you want is a defensive improvement over PJ, slide Tobi to his natural spot at the 4 and put Thybulle out there.

We should have started Thybulle over Tucker from the jump. Two PF's starting together in today's league was a terrible idea to begin with.

Sent from my SM-S901U using RealGM mobile app

[youngcrev]

Why would you want Paul Reed at the 4 (particularly next to Embiid)? Over Harrell as the backup 5, sure. But all he really does on offense right now is set screens. He makes plays on defense, but he's also kinda all over the place on that end and fouls a ton.

If all you want is a defensive improvement over PJ, slide Tobi to his natural spot at the 4 and put Thybulle out there.

We should have started Thybulle over Tucker from the jump. Two PF's starting together in today's league was a terrible idea to begin with.

Sent from my SM-S901U using RealGM mobile app

I figured they'd be fine since Tucker can just take the tougher matchup and seems to have a lot more in the tank athletically than Danny did, but yeah, Harris isn't great on the perimeter (particularly off ball) and they're just way too slow. I still think it's viable in a slower setting when you get more strictly into half court sets both ways, but I'm less sure about it over long stretches, particularly in the regular season.

Of course, subbing Reed in for Tucker doesn't really help any of that though, lol.

I kinda just wonder if they've given up on Thybulle. Seems to me like they'd be able to cover for him offensively with how good Harden has been, but they might just feel like they're wasting their time.

If they do bring Tucker off the bench, I wonder if maybe they'll forego Reed and Harrell altogether and use him as the primary backup for Embiid in addition to some minutes at forward. The spread the floor, switch everything lineups have been pretty successful both now and in the past with Harden. Melton, Harden, House, Harris, Tucker could end up being our most effective, non-Embiid lineup we've had.

[76ciology]

The spread the floor, switch everything lineups have been pretty successful both now and in the past with Harden. Melton, Harden, House, Harris, Tucker could end up being our most effective, non-Embiid lineup we've had.

Yes, because they rotate fast and you dont have any weak links on defense.

Biid rotates slow and Maxey is a weak link on defense.

then on offense, Biid does his thing either miss or falls, then you are in a 4v5 or 3v4 situation on the other end of the floor.

[76ciology]

Sixers starting 5 unit is the fourth best 5 man unit among 5 man units with atleast 60mins of PT

Warriors starting 5 has insane +36NetRtg tho..

The biggest problem are our Harden centric and Embiid centric 5 man units.

[Kobblehead]

Definitely need to see the Reed/Embiid frontcourt.

[Jailblazers7]

I would like to see a PJ/Matisse lineup where those two cut and screen like crazy. We need more movement on offense to create some confusion off ball.

Part of the reason it’s so easy to double Embiid is because nobody is moving on offense.