Turnovers
Turnovers have plagued the Philadelphia 76ers for a few seasons already, and the trend has continued into the 2018/19 season. Against the Raptors on Tuesday, Kawhi Leonard held Ben Simmons to 11 points and 11 turnovers, and although the Sixers will not face many defenders as gifted as Kawhi, that does not discount the fact that this is still a major problem.
The Sixers sit at 29th in the league in terms of turnovers, averaging 14.9 per game. The team’s starters all average more than one turnover per game, and Simmons leads the team in turnovers per game with 3.7 so far. Joel Embiid has mitigated his turnover struggles from last season, averaging 2.4 per game this campaign compared to 3.7 last season, but he still sits second on the team.
Per-36 minutes, Amir Johnson turns the ball over 3.5 times and T.J. McConnell gives it away 2.4 times, showing the turnover bug is a bench problem, too. Many key players on the team have posted one-to-one assist-to-turnover ratios or lower, including Covington, Redick, and Muscala.
Simmons and Covington lead the team with nine turnovers from bad passes, and for Simmons, that partially comes as a result of making the third-most passes per game in the NBA, and partially because he has a tendency to pick up his dribble while not fully committing to driving to the hoop and start looking for options once he is in midair.
The Sixers play at the eighth-highest pace in the league this season, so Brown might want to consider slowing things down in favor of taking care of the ball. If not, the Aussie needs to stop making impulsive jump passes, or at the very least, look for open teammates before he does so.