Are the Philadelphia 76ers taking too many 3s?

The Philadelphia 76ers run a modern offense that’s heavily reliant on 3–point shots. While this is mostly a good thing, one of the reasons the Sixers tend to blow big leads is their tendency to keep shooting the NBA’s longest shots when they’re not going in.

You’re watching a Philadelphia 76ers game and Joel Embiid takes a wide open three-pointer with more than 14 seconds left on the shot clock, and bricks it. The other team rebounds the ball and quickly scores on the Sixers with an easy layup.

On the Sixers’ next possession, Landry Shamet takes a wide open three-point shot with more than 10 seconds left on the shot clock, and misses it. The other team rebounds the ball and are fouled while taking a shot on the fast break.

Five minutes later, the 15-point lead the Sixers had before Embiid took the aforementioned three-point shot is now a four-point lead and the Sixers are in another one of their trademark close games. While the scenario I just described isn’t an exact retelling of a real game this season, it very well could’ve been.

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Through 23 games, the Sixers have been a above average three-point shooting team. They rank 14th in three-point percentage (35.4 percent) and seventh in three-pointers made (256), so their offensive strategies are mostly working. But their biggest issue is not being willing to change strategies when it’s not working.

In the Sixers’ 121-112 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, their worst loss of the season, they were outscored by the Cavaliers in the four quarter by 8 points. The Sixers took seven three-pointers that four quarter and only made one of them, so going for easier shots might’ve been enough to keep the Sixers as the only unbeaten team at home and the Cavaliers as the only team to not win a road game.

Embiid is the best center in the league and Ben Simmons is great at driving to the basket for dunks and layups, yet the Sixers rank 19th in point scored in the paint per game with 46.3 points.

Going forward, the Sixers should get more creative with the ways they use recent addition Jimmy Butler and Embiid should take more mid-range shots. With the Sixers’ backup center situation being bad and Simmons’ willingness to play in the post increasing since the addition of Butler, they should play Simmons at center with Butler as the primary ball handler around five minutes per game.

And Embiid is only making 30.6 percent of his three-pointers while making 43.2 percent of his shots 15-19 feet away from the basket, so he should be willingly to give up on taking an open three and move closer to the basket whenever the Sixers enter a shooting slump.

It’s still early in the season and the Sixers are a work in progress, but a few offensive changes could be the different between winning and losing a game.