The Philadelphia 76ers could be trouble this year if their poor 3-point shooting trend from the preseason follows them during the regular season.
There are somethings that shouldn’t be of concern for teams during the preseason. Such as a lineups or even records during that period. However, if a teams shoots poor in the preseason, there’s a good chance it won’t get much better in the regular season. The Philadelphia 76ers 3-point shooting woes in the preseason could spell issues for the team’s title asperations.
In five preseason matchups, Philly hasn’t shoot great from outside. The 76ers had two good games shooting from the 3-point line. Against the Guangzhou Long-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), the Sixers shot 37.3 percent on 3-pointers. Philly punished the Orlando Magic from downtown converting 41.9 percent of their attempts from that range.
They also had three really bad games of 3-point shooting. The 76ers only shot 25.0 percent from the 3-point line against the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons. The Washington Wizard were able to limit Philly from the 3-point line, with the 76ers only converting 25.9 percent from downtown.
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In of the two games that the Sixers shot well from outside, one was against a non-NBA team. It should also be noted that in both of those games the 76ers had the full starting five they shot well from outside the arc. In the other three games where Philly shot poorly, at least one member of the starting five was missing.
According to RealGM, only Ben Simmons, Trey Burke, Zhaire Smith, Shake Milton, Mike Scott and Al Horford shot 40.0 percent or above on 3-pointers. Simmons, Scott and Horford figure to be locks in for a regular roles, where as the other three players roles on the team this season seems uncertain. Don’t expect Simmons to take a lot of 3-pointers either this year, so his percentage isn’t a huge factor.
Josh Richardson, Raul Neto, Marial Shayok and Furkan Korkmaz shot between 33.3 percent and 30.8 percent from downtown (stats per RealGM). Richardson is a starter, Neto could be in line for a role this season, Korkmaz is fighting for minutes and Shayok is on a two-way deal, so he won’t have a consistent role this year.
Starters Tobias Harris shot 25.0 percent from downtown and Joel Embiid made 22.2 percent of his shots from behind the arc (stats per RealGM). Key reserves Matisse Thybulle shot 26.7 percent on his 3-point attempts and James Ennis converted 12.5 percent of his 3-pointers (stats per RealGM).
Having two starters shoot 25.0 percent or below from the 3-point line isn’t a way to win in the NBA. Harris in particular needs to show off his potential as an elite 3-point shooter. Having two key reserve struggle from downtown isn’t good either. This was only the preseason, but did reveal some potential issues with the club’s outside shooting.
The hope is, once the regular season begins, players like Richardson, Harris, Embiid, Thybulle, Ennis, Neto and Korkmaz will improve from their preseason 3-point shooting averages. The modern NBA needs floor spacing and this preseason has revealed that the Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand may not have add enough of it this past summer.