An improvement with teamwork and an improvement on the fundamentals has helped the Philadelphia 76ers play better.
The Philadelphia 76ers have a new identity in 2016, and it’s one that comes hand in hand with a bunch of hard-fought, close games as well as some wins too. While fans are certainly throwing this season out the window as far as being competitive–especially with draft prospects like Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram possibly entering the draft this season–they’re still looking for glimmers of hope from the roster. January has given them that.
The Sixers have done decently on a 6 game home-stand, and although they only came away with 2 wins during the 6 games, played considerably better basketball during those games than they have the entire rest of the season. While some have attributed the better play to a new (yet familiar) face running the point, there’s more to the story than that, even though Ish is the catalyst to a lot of the improved components.
More from Sixers News
- 3 Sixers players who could help Team USA Basketball
- 76ers 2k24 ratings: 3 most underrated players on Philadelphia roster
- 76ers head coach Nick Nurse bares lofty plans for Paul Reed this season
- Grade the Trade: 76ers swap Tobias Harris for superstar PG in mock deal
- Breaking Down Bombshell Report on Sixers Star James Harden
The Sixers had a lot of issues in 2015. At the forefront of those issues were fundamentals, like not taking care of the ball, and simply not making open looks. The Sixers moved the ball decently in 2015, but when players got looks they should have gotten to find the net easily, they were unable to do so. The chemistry–or something–was clearly off. And if it wasn’t missed shots, it was turnovers. Whether it be shot clock violations, poorly executed cross-court passes, or just dribbling the ball off of their feet, the Sixers seemed to be good for close to 30 turnovers in most games in the 2015 portion of this season.
Since their opening game on October 28th through the last game of 2015 on December 30th, the Sixers committed 17.7 turnovers per game and shot just 42 percent from the field, thus making their assist numbers fall to just 19.0 per game.
Since 2016 came, however, we have seen a new life, and a new version of this 76ers team that seemingly can keep up with the likes of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Really, it’s fundamentals and teamwork. What I learned in my recreational league basketball seasons when I was in elementary school was to pass the ball, and do my best to work well with my teammates. And of course, protect the ball. There’s more that goes along with fundamentals, but “teamwork” seems to umbrella just about everything. Fundamentals is what the Sixers have gone back to. Fundamentals wins games.
In their 25 point rout of the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night, Jahlil Okafor was in the form we’d love to see him in, sinking 12 of his 16 shots, finishing the game with 25 points. He was the best player on the floor from the get-go, and it paid off for Philly. Just as it should be, he was their main source of points, and going forward, that’s the building block they need to cusp this rebuild.
This is nice, but we’ve seen this from Okafor in 2015. 12 times he scored more than 20 points, and eight times he put up double doubles with points and rebounds. High scoring from Okafor is nothing we haven’t seen so far this season, it’s just the winning coming along with it that we have yet to see.
What we haven’t seen that really led to the win though, was guys making their shots. Several times the Blazers looked to shut Okafor down with a double team. Several times he escaped and scored anyway, but there were also times that he kicked the ball out and the Sixers looked for another angle to score from. Robert Covington, Isaiah Canaan, and others were finally active, and finally making their shots.
It’s been broader than just the Blazers game. Robert Covington is finally out of his slump, doing fantastically in the past two games. Nik Stauskas, who had an awful, sub-30 percent from beyond the arc in 2015, is finally shooting near 50 percent in 2016, which is what Sixers fans–and heck, even Kings fans–wanted since he came into the league.
Covington has shot 46 percent from the field and scored 20.5 points per game in the last two games. Nik Stauskas is shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc since 2016 started and scoring over 8 points per game. Canaan scored 14 and shot 50 percent from the field in Saturday’s win.
More 76ers: Embiid is going to be a star, despite setbacks
This team is finally seeing things come into place where they should be coming into place. No longer is the team relying on solely Okafor. He’s a big part of the success, yes, but an even bigger part is the fact that the team has more options, more opportunities to work together well, and overall more opportunities to be a real NBA team that does well with fundamentals. There’s reason to look forward to the second half of this season, and even more reason to look forward to next season.