Philadelphia 76ers: 5 things Brett Brown must change moving forward

Team Defense

The Sixers’ defensive system has worked well recently, considering they finished with the fourth-best defensive rating in the NBA last season, but they have three players with aims of making the All-Defensive first team at the end of this season, so the squad’s defensive struggles early this season should cause mild concern.

Robert Covington made the All-Defensive first team last season, and aside from taking a few plays off on that end of the floor, he has played well as his 2.0 defensive box plus/minus illustrates. He also has averages of 1.7 steals and blocks through October 13th and the second-best defensive rating on the team.

Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons fill out the top three with Cov in all the advanced defensive stats, but aside from them, not many Sixers have done their part defensively through the first eight games. There is a consistent group of players showing up at the bottom of defensive statistical rankings for the team: J.J. Redick, T.J. McConnell, Markelle Fultz, and Landry Shamet.

So, every single one of the team’s traditional guards hasn’t shown much positive ability on the defensive side. Clearly that’s an issue, since at least one, usually two of them, is on the floor at all times. Additionally, backup center Amir Johnson has posted a negative plus/minus through eight games, and his 0.3 blocks per game do not do much to protect the rim when Embiid takes a breather.

Some ways for Brown to circumvent this issue is to experiment with lineups. Wilson Chandler‘s injury makes it hard for the Sixers to go with a big, athletic lineup off the bench but the Boston-born coach can manipulate his rotation to maximize the team’s potential on both ends.