3 things the Philadelphia 76ers still need entering this season
The Philadelphia 76ers roster is still missing three very important aspects entering this year.
There’s no denying that the Philadelphia 76ers‘ president of basketball operations Daryl Morey and general manager Elton Brand have done a good job upgrading this roster this past season. However, this roster is far from a finished product.
That isn’t to say the hiring of Doc Rivers as head coach, the trades for Danny Green and Seth Curry, the drafting of Tyrese Maxey, or the signing of Dwight Howard are bad transactions. While those moves were pretty good, they aren’t enough to make the Sixers a favorite in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
There are at least three more additions needed to this roster in order for it to properly compete for an NBA title.
3 things the Sixers still need entering this season: Stretch-5
I’ve written on this in the past, how the 76ers need to keep their eyes on available stretch bigs so that Ben Simmons can have a completely open floor in certain lineups. Right now, outside of Joel Embiid, who is best utilized inside of the 3-point line, Philly lacks any true stretch big.
“Right now, outside of Joel Embiid, who is best utilized inside of the 3-point line, Philly lacks any true stretch big.”
There is an off chance Rivers could use Mike Scott at that role, but it seems unlikely due to the veteran’s short stature for the position and inability to rebound the ball at a high level. The other centers on the roster don’t provide much hope in stretching the floor.
Don’t expect Howard to expand his range at this late stage of his career. Vincent Poirier probably won’t either and while Tony Bradley believes he can become one, the front office can’t hedge their bets on that.
In that previously mentioned article, I wrote that Dewayne Dedmon and Skal Labissiere as possible targets via free agency, but another that recently became available is Frank Kaminsky. The former lottery pick has played for the Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns. He was waived by the Sacramento Kings this offseason. He is a career 34.7 percent 3-point shooter.
Adding any of these stretch centers would probably mean that the Sixers would have to move on from either Poirier or Bradley as the team does have four centers on the depth chart already.