Philadelphia 76ers Must Improve Shooting Accuracy
By Bret Stuter
Cleaner Shots
Cleaner shots is an area of interest for the Philadelphia 76ers this year. One of the objectives for the Pace Space and Pass offense is to get the ball movement at a very rapid pace, disorient the defense, place the ball into the open shooters hands just as the shot opens up, take and make the shot.
The by-product of this change is the movement without the ball of the team. Simmon’s passing will keep shooters moving, setting up and then moving to the next point. With a renewed confidence that the ball can get to them, the team will become far crisper in getting to the right location at the right time. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot was a nice example of a player whose off-ball movement kept the defense moving and guessing. With that confusion throughout the season, players like Robert Covington and Nerlens Noel , who need help getting clean looks, will score much more effectively.
With shooters on the basketball court who can move with or without the ball, and create their own shots. the Philadelphia 76ers offense will finally gain an advantage in some matchups this year. Last year the book on the 76ers was to collapse at the pocket to make in impossible to use Okafor, and then when Okafor left, to pursue the hot hand at the perimeter if a Sixer started to score. That one chapter book of offense made it extremely easy for defenses to play at their best.
Later in the season, the team began to depend on other players for offense. Carl Landry stepped up in games where he saw quality minutes, as did Robert Covington after snapping out of a mid season slump.
The fact is that the team has a number of players who shoot well, but depend on plays and scheme to get them the shots.
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When the dust settles by the end of the 2016-2017 season, the team will hopefully be in the 45 percent accuracy range from the floor, and the 35 percent accuracy from three point range. It would mean an improvement of 2 percent from the floor, and just 1 percent from three point range.