Sixers: 5 takeaways from preseason opener vs. Raptors

5 takeaways from Sixers’ preseason opener: This team might experience some growing pains offensively

There are three important caveats worth mentioning here before critiquing the team’s offensive sets. First, it’s preseason basketball. Second, the Raptors are a very good, very lengthy, and very switchable defensive team. Third, the Sixers didn’t have their two best players currently with the team — Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris — so the game probably wasn’t a hyper-accurate reflection of what the regular season will look like.

That being said, the Sixers offense looked extremely ugly at points throughout their first preseason contest. Especially when Shake Milton got a chance to be the team’s primary ball-handler, things looked disjointed and discombobulated, and the team’s frequent turnovers paired with porous transition defense do not bode well for the regular season.

Shake wasn’t the only offensive culprit, either. Drummond recorded a few turnovers — which, given his long history in the NBA is to be expected. Tyrese Maxey didn’t look quite as dominant off the dribble as he did in summer league. And the team’s other new addition, Georges Niang, definitely still needs some time to get used to his teammates; he got caught out of position a few times, and seemed a bit out of sorts.

Hopefully, there will be more room to operate once Embiid and Harris return. As the season goes on, too, the new additions will develop more chemistry with the Sixers’ holdovers from last year. However, the team certainly has quite a bit of room to grow in their collective effort to replace Ben Simmons’s playmaking and competence as a floor general.