The Philadelphia 76ers have started the 2020-21 season on a strong note, but here are some resolutions for the new year.
The Philadelphia 76ers are 4-1 and tied for first place in the Eastern Conference after Thursday’s dominant victory over Orlando. When Joel Embiid is on the floor, the Sixers are 4-0. With plenty of promise, yet lingering rumors of a certain blockbuster trade, there’s a lot to look forward to in 2021.
With Daryl Morey and Doc Rivers in charge, there is finally an air of competence around the organization. Embiid looks like a borderline MVP candidate, while Ben Simmons continues to showcase his phenomenal versatility on both sides of the ball.
That said, there’s always room for improvement — both individually and as a team. Here are some new year’s resolutions for Philadelphia.
Sixers New Year’s resolution: Doc, stagger your rotations
Doc Rivers has compiled one of the most successful coaching careers in NBA history. Far be it from me to tell him how to do his job. That said, Rivers’ long-running desire to separate starters and reserves — basically, his tendency to play five bench players at once — could harm the Sixers in the long run.
While it’s early and there is value in trying different groups together, at some point, Rivers should stagger Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. While they are highly effective together, they are also effective apart. The Sixers’ bench isn’t particularly good, and at some point, it will become apparent that Shake Milton cannot run a second unit lineup as well as Lou Williams.
Rivers has always had deep bench units, but that is simply not the case in Philadelphia. Embiid and Simmons should spent plenty of time together, but time spent apart is not a negative. Or, at the very least, give Tobias Harris minutes to eat alongside the second unit.
Sixers New Year’s resolution: Tyrese, expand your game
The early returns on Tyrese Maxey are overwhelmingly positive. He’s a rotation piece — a good rotation piece — and someone the Sixers can rely on to generate offense in the halfcourt. He gets to the rim with ease, his passing has already improved significantly since his days at Kentucky, and he’s a competent defender at the point of attack.
Philadelphia will continue to get good production out of Maxey, and in time, I expect his minutes to increase. That said, in order for Rivers to place his trust in Maxey without reservation, he needs to expand his game. Basically, he needs to shoot 3s.
Maxey shot a shade below 30 percent from deep in college, so his 3-point shot was never a given. That said, he has clean mechanics and feathery touch inside the arc — good indicators of future success behind the 3-point line. He cannot experience that success, however, if he doesn’t shoot them.
Through five games, Maxey is 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. Ideally, he would take more than one per game. They will eventually start falling. Maxey has passed up several open looks in favor of drives to the rim, and while his slashing is valuable to Philadelphia’s offense, defenses will eventually adjust if he poses no reliable threat from deep. He has to shoot them.
Sixers New Year’s resolution: Tobias, keep it up
After a rocky start to the season, Tobias Harris has found his stride over the past two games. He dropped 26 on Toronto, then dropped 20 on Orlando in a game that was over at halftime. Harris has found the proper balance of decisiveness and aggressiveness, without mucking up the offense through ill-fated dribble drives and seconds-late swing passes. If he keeps it up, the Sixers are in for a bountiful campaign.
Harris, for all the necessary criticism tied to his contract, can still positively impact a basketball game. He’s a skilled slasher and finisher when he wants to be, and his 3-point shot is a weapon the Sixers have never been able to take full advantage of. He’s shooting 45.8 percent from deep through five games, and while that number will inevitably come down, the hope is it won’t come down too far. In 55 games under Doc Rivers in 2018-19, Harris shot 43.4 percent from deep.
The Sixers need Harris to continue embracing his role as a complementary talent, rather than trying to be the go-to perimeter scorer Philadelphia at one point expected him to be. Harris cannot reliably create offense from scratch. What he can do is launch open 3s, attack closeouts, move the basketball, and run the occasional two-man action with Embiid.
If the Sixers continue to get sharp decisions from Harris, and he continues to set nets ablaze from 3-point range, the weight of his contract won’t sting quite as much. He will never live up to $36 million per year, but he can still look the part of a strong third wheel.
Sixers New Year’s resolution: Seth, act like the best shooter on the planet
Is Seth Curry the best shooter on the planet? Maybe not. Many would say his brother holds that title. Even so, he’s in the conversation. The younger Curry shot 45.2 percent from deep last season and he’s a career 44.5 percent 3-point shooter. He should have no qualms about letting it fly at every opportunity.
The core tenant of an effective complement to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is decisiveness. Just ask Tobias Harris and read every article written about him since his arrival in Philadelphia. If you want to maximize Embiid and Simmons, you cannot have players who take too long to process information.
So far, Curry has thrived in his new home. He’s averaging 15.2 points per game (that would mark a career high) and hitting 51.9 percent of his 3s through five games. There’s not much to complain about. That said, there have been instances of Curry passing up open 3s in favor of an extra pass or, even worse, resetting the offense. Curry should launch any remotely open look with confidence.
He is currently averaging 5.4 attempts from deep in 28.8 minutes per game. Not a bad number, but Curry gets so many clean looks simply by playing next to Embiid that he could easily tack one or two more attempts onto that number.
Duncan Robinson, for example, launched 8.3 triples in 29.7 minutes per game last season. J.J. Redick launched 6.6 in 27.5 minutes per game. Curry is a different player. He doesn’t shoot on the move quite the same, and he spends more time handling the basketball and playing stopgap point guard in the halfcourt. The principles, however, are the same. Curry needs to let it fly as often as possible.
Sixers New Year’s resolution: Ben, go to the rim
Ben Simmons doesn’t need to shoot 3s. He doesn’t need to launch pull-up jumpers out of the pick-and-roll. He needs to get to the gosh-darn rim. Simmons’ lack of aggressiveness has long hamstrung his production. If he’s going to take a leap, it will involve more assaults on the rim, not a sudden barrage of corner 3s.
Frankly, I am more skeptical now than ever of Simmons taking any large leaps forward. He’s a great player — one of the best defenders on the planet and a special playmaking talent. I ranked him as the 17th best player in basketball before the season. He is elite, yes, but the odds of him reaching top-10 or top-five status feel increasingly slim.
That said, at 24 years old, there is still plenty of time for a switch to flip. If Simmons does flip that switch, it will need to involve less timidity around the rim. At 6-foot-10, Simmons is a freight train athlete who has no trouble bullying his way to the restricted area when he wants to. He simply doesn’t want to often enough.
That is likely because of the free throw line, where Simmons is a career 59.4 percent shooter. He struggles at the charity stripe, and as a result, he’s hesitant to embrace contact. At the end of the day, it shouldn’t matter. Simmons is too good a finisher to avoid the rim, and he’s a good enough free throw shooter for a trip to the line to qualify as a good use of a possession. It’s a trade-off he needs to become comfortable with — more aggressive takes will help the offense, even if he has to shoot more free throws.
Simmons needs a mean streak. He needs to want to score — want to put a dent in the rim — if he’s ever going to justify the anti-James Harden takes. If he ever wants to achieve LeBron James-lite status, it will come through better possessions inside the arc, rather than more 3s. That, of course, is not to say more 3s wouldn’t help.