The Philadelphia 76ers have a handful of issues and most of them can be traced back to the decisions made by their general manager.
Despite having a record of 36-22 record and being fifth in the Eastern Conference playoff race, the Philadelphia 76ers have been a disappointment this season. They were supposed to be a contender and a top team in the NBA, but have fallen short of that expectation thus far. While there are several things that contribute to the Sixers’ issues, there’s one person that should shoulder most of the blame for the 76ers shortcomings.
It’s no secret that Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons aren’t a perfect match in terms of being a superstar duo. It’s also been well documented that head coach Brett Brown isn’t perfect at his job. However, it’s general manager (GM) Elton Brand‘s job to maximize the strengths of his star players and his head coach. Brand has failed to do this, while also failing to keep the team’s young talent and draft assets.
Brand came in with very little front office experience outside of being the general manager of Philly’s G-League affiliate. When he took over as general manager the Sixers were still developing a young core of Simmons, Embiid, Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric, Robert Covington, T.J. McConnell Furkan Korkmaz, Shake Milton and Zhaire Smith.
This core had its limits, but it wasn’t a finished product and more importantly, it didn’t have super high expectations on it. Thanks to what Brand has done with this roster over a season and a half, they don’t have as bright as a future and have super high expectations.
He traded away young assets like Robert Covington and Dario Saric for Jimmy Butler. Butler ended up staying for just that season and the Sixers had no choice but to flip him for Josh Richardson. There’s no denying that Richardson has his moments, but he’s honestly not a big upgrade over Covington and Saric.
Brand gave up on Markelle Fultz, who in all fairness needed to get out of Philadelphia. However, the only thing of value that the 76ers got back in that trade was a first-round pick that may not convey to the Sixers. At the time, that seemed like fair value, but Fultz has now outplayed the value of that deal, despite his struggles from downtown.
The young GM also traded away J.J. Redick‘s heir apparent in Landry Shamet for Tobias Harris. Don’t be mistaken, Harris brings a lot of value to the Sixers, but he’s not the floor spacer that Shamet is becoming, which is essential to what Philly needs to make the duo of Simmons and Embiid to work.
From a salary cap standpoint, it makes sense that Brand did these moves. With rookie extensions looming there wasn’t a way to improve the team via free agency, but it’s fair to ask if he made the right moves to improve the overall talent on the roster. In the past, I graded Brand on his moves as GM, but in hindsight, those grades seem a little generous now.
This past summer Brand made even more questionable moves. He flipped Butler for Richardson because for one reason or another Butler didn’t sign a deal to stay with Philly.
As a result of losing Butler, the Philadelphia 76ers overpaid Harris to a max contract so that there was no chance they would lose him. Harris is a great third scorer for the core of Simmons and Embiid, but he’s not a late-game closer due to his inability to create space and shoot off-the-dribble in high-pressure situations.
Then there was the addition of Al Horford. There was good logic to the move. It was smart to add a starting-caliber center to the roster incase Embiid isn’t healthy and can’t play. What wasn’t logical was to imagine that Horford and Embiid could co-exist together in the starting five.
Horford’s known for being a versatile center, but he’s not versatile enough to play alongside both Embiid and Simmons. Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice put it best when explaining how adding Horford impacted the rest of the roster construction.
"“By using a significant chunk of their cap space on a player who is now a backup center, the Sixers capped their ability to invest in the skills Philadelphia’s best players actually need around them to reach their potential. ”"
This leads to the main issue with the 76ers this season. This main issue is why the struggles of the team are primarily on Brand instead of Embiid, Simmons, and Brown.
The Sixers don’t have the right type of role players. With the addition of Horford, the 76ers had no way of bringing back veteran Redick. Despite being a liability on defense, Redick was essential to Philly’s offensive success.
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Redick isn’t just a good 3-point shooter. He’s an elite and I dare to say that if he was in his prime today, there’s a chance he’d be an All-Star just purely base don his 3-point shooting. In just two seasons, he’s become one of the best 3-point shooters in Sixers franchise history.
That being said, his high volume shooting, as well as his off the ball movement, was essential to the 76ers success for the last two years. While Korkmaz has tried his best to fill the void, he’s nowhere near the consistent and high volume 3-point shooter Philly needs to surround Embiid and Simmons with.
This isn’t to say that Brand doesn’t have good 3-point shooters on the roster, but none of them are on the same level of Redick, or even Shamet. If Brand built the Sixers like how the Milwaukee Bucks have built around Giannis Antetokounmpo with nothing but shooters and one or two shot-creators, then Philly would be in a better place.
Not having the right supporting cast around Embiid and Simmons will make Brown’s job harder as well. Due to the lack of floor spacing, there’s only so much that Brown can do, like shift Horford to the bench. Still, without the proper personnel, that’s only a half measure to fix Philly’s problems.
If Brand would have taken the $28 million that he spent to sign Horford and re-sign Redick for the $13.5 million he signed with the Pelicans for, he still would have had $14.5 million to use on either another sharpshooter, shot creator and/or quality backup center.
It didn’t help that Brand let McConnell walk in free agency in favor of Raul Neto and Trey Burke. McConnell couldn’t space the floor and had his limitations on defense, but he was a leader off the bench and was a spark plug of energy. Obviously, losing McConnell has hurt the bench as well.
Now Simmons is injured and he might end up missing the rest of the season (hopefully not). However, if his injury to Simmons ends up being season-ending, then it gives the 76ers a mulligan for this year. Even if Philly gets bounced out in the first or second round of the playoffs, the team won’t be greatly scrutinized.
During this offseason, there need to be some changes. Moving on from Horford seems like a must at this point. Hopefully, Philly could trade him for a position of need, like another starting level point guard and/or center (preferably on a cheaper deal). Swapping him for a shot-creator or sharpshooter isn’t out of the question either. Regardless, Brand needs to correct his mistakes.
Brand has made mistakes costing the Philadelphia 76ers some nice young prospects and draft picks. It appears to have also cost the franchise a real chance to contend for a title unless something magical happens in the playoffs.