The Philadelphia 76ers need to let it fly more often.
The Philadelphia 76ers are 18-9 and hold a 1.5-game lead over Milwaukee for first place in the Eastern Conference. Given where the team finished last season, there’s not much to complain about. Daryl Morey has effectively overhauled the roster, and Doc Rivers is breathing new life into a once-tired franchise.
That said, not everything is hearts and roses this Valentine’s Day. The Sixers have lost two straight, with a very likely third loss coming down the pipeline Monday night. The Jazz are the most cohesive two-way unit in basketball, and recently, Philadelphia has struggled to put its best foot forward.
Road trips are never easy, and there’s no reason to panic. Again, the Sixers are in first place! Joel Embiid looks MVP worthy, Ben Simmons has retuned to All-Star form, and Tobias Harris is playing arguably his best season of basketball to date. Philadelphia is very much trending in the right direction.
Of the Sixers’ many bumps and bruises lately, however, few stick out more than their 3-point shooting. The Sixers are not a bad shooting team. In fact, they are equipped to be an elite shooting team. And yet, despite complementary personnel geared mostly toward the 3-point line, Philadelphia has been surprisingly shy from range.
From The Athletic’s Derek Bodner:
Over the last 14 games the Sixers are averaging 24.3 three-point attempts per game.
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) February 14, 2021
No team has averaged that few attempts over the course of a season since 2017-18.
90 out of 90 team seasons over the last three years have eclipsed that mark.
The NBA has undergone a 3-point revolution of sorts in recent years, and Philadelphia is geared to exploit the inherent efficiency of a good 3-point shot. Ben Simmons is one of the best 3-point shot generators in basketball, and Joel Embiid sucks the defense inward almost every possession. That, combined with multiple elite-level shooters on the perimeter, should make the Sixers a dominant 3-point shooting team.
Doc Rivers has made a point of prioritizing “comfortable” shots for his players. That is good and well, but the Sixers have three starters shooting above 40 percent from 3 — Seth Curry (the most efficient 3-point shooter in basketball), Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid. They also have Danny Green, a career 39.9 percent 3-point shooter. Not to mention Furkan Korkmaz and Shake Milton in the second unit, two players who butter their bread behind the 3-point line.
There’s no reason for such a low volume of perimeter shots. Bodner went on to note that even last year’s team — full of notoriously uneven shooters — attempted roughly 31 triples per game while running the offense through Joel Embiid in the post. Even with Embiid’s increased command of the basketball and the paint, there’s no reason for such timid 3-point numbers from this year’s squad. The Sixers need to let if fly with regularity.
Despite Embiid’s greatness and the elevated performance of his co-stars, there are still lingering questions about Philadelphia’s offense. There are reasonable doubts about its ability to function late in high-pressure moments. How reliable in Embiid free-styling in an offense devoid of prolific perimeter creators? One way to soothe such concerns is a constant barrage of 3-pointers, which has not been common enough for how this roster is constructed.
It’s time for the Sixers to embrace the 3-pointer.