Philadelphia 76ers need someone to emerge as a reliable shot creator

In the wake of Jimmy Butler’s departure, the Philadelphia 76ers need someone to step up and become a reliable shot creator to fully realize their potential

After a 5-0 start, the Philadelphia 76ers have somewhat fallen back to Earth over the course of the last seven games. As always in Philadelphia, the takes are hot and criticisms of the team have been well documented. With starters regularly in and out of the lineup, the team has struggled to find continuity on offense and it has shown in the form of turnovers and poor shooting.

We knew shooting was going to be an issue with this team, and the turnovers are to be expected when a group of players are still learning how to play with one another. These are flaws that should work themselves out throughout the year, but there is one flaw that this team has that may be extremely difficult to overcome – and that is the absence of any player on offense that can consistently create their own shot.

It seems like as fans, we all collectively moved on from Jimmy Butler’s confusing departure rather quickly. The Sixers added other pieces such as Josh Richardson and Al Horford, so the fact that Butler was no longer a member of the team was not that big of a deal at the time. All of the clamoring to “Run It Back” disappeared as fans realized the defensive potential of the newly formed lineup.

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What many didn’t realize initially is that Jimmy Butler was perhaps the only player on the team that could be relied upon to go get a bucket when all else fails in crunch time situations. Love him or hate him – he showed throughout the regular season and playoffs last year that he could create his own shot time and time again in clutch moments.

Now, without Butler, the team has relied upon head coach Brett Brown to draw up some pretty impressive late-game plays coming out of timeouts, which have resulted in big wins over the Atlanta Hawks, Portland Trail Blazers, and most recently the Cleveland Cavaliers. Head coach Brett Brown is certainly not a favorite in this town, but he has been one of the few reasons that the Sixers have been able to pull out some of these close games to start the year.

The fact of the matter is this method of winning close games is simply not sustainable. We can’t expect the head coach to draw up a perfect play every single night that gets somebody an easy look, especially when things get tighter in the playoffs. Even if he did – there are not a lot of players on this team that are a sure thing when it comes to shooting right now. At some point, particularly in the postseason, you need a guy that can create his own shot when everything else falls apart, and the 76ers just don’t have that at the moment.

Joel Embiid, who is obviously a dominant offensive player, is still a low-post center, and it is just easier for teams to defend him at the end of games if he is the only reliable offensive option. The same goes for Al Horford, who is simply not somebody that is going to beat many defenders off the dribble and create an easy look for himself. Ben Simmons, as great as he is, will not attempt jumpers yet, and until he does his offensive game is far too predictable to be relied upon in an isolation situation as time is running down in a game.

That leaves Tobias Harris and Josh Richardson – two guys who certainly have the offensive potential to create their own shot but have only shown flashes of it throughout the start of this season. In order for the 76ers to reach their lofty goals this year, one of these players has to emerge as a somewhat-reliable shot maker at the end of games.

Harris, who has been Antarctic levels of cold as a shooter to begin the year, was supposed to be a guy who could evolve his game and become a reliable bucket-getter for this team as Jimmy Butler moved on to the beautiful beaches of Miami. Richardson, coming to the Sixers from those very same beautiful beaches, was touted by many as “Jimmy Butler Lite”, but has failed to live up to that potential on the offensive end so far.

Both of these players are young, and will continue to grow and evolve their games throughout their careers as Philadelphia 76ers. The problem is, as a team with championship aspirations this year, the Sixers don’t exactly have that much time to wait around for these guys to blossom out of their cocoons and turn into offensive butterflies.

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It is still very early, and I am still confident that the Philadelphia 76ers will finish the season as a top one or two seed in the Eastern Conference, but they have larger goals than just that. By signing Tobias Harris to a max deal and trading for Josh Richardson, the Sixers were expecting these guys to pick up some of the slack that Jimmy Butler left behind as a shot-creating offensive player. So far, it hasn’t exactly happened, and in order for this team to get to and possibly win in the NBA Finals – they are going to need one of these two players to step up in a major way.