Sixers: 3 biggest issues ahead of NBA playoffs

The Sixers are 8-3 with James Harden in the lineup and currently occupy the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. For all the doom and gloom passing around certain corners of the fanbase, one would expect the Sixers to be in a far more dire situation.

With Joel Embiid competing for MVP and looking like a definitive top-5 player in the NBA, it’s impossible to count the Sixers out of anything. There are very real concerns, but with no overarching juggernaut atop the conference standings, Philadelphia has a real — if difficult — path to glory.

That being said, let’s dive into the three biggest issues facing the Sixers ahead of the 2022 NBA playoffs.

Sixers’ biggest issues ahead of playoffs: Depth

Surprise, surprise, the Sixers have a depth issue. Daryl Morey has done a lot of good since arriving in Philadelphia, but his work around the margins — specifically, his work bolstering the second unit — has underwhelmed multiple times over. First, the George Hill trade went bust. Now, despite season-long concerns, the Sixers went past the trade deadline without a single move to improve the bench unit. It was the Harden trade and nothing else.

The latter part is understandable given the difficulties of negotiating in a time crunch. The Sixers rightfully put all their effort into the Harden trade, and probably didn’t have adequate time to negotiate any other foundation-shaking moves. That said, Morey has compounded those issues by signing DeAndre Jordan and using four roster spots on backup centers, none of whom are particularly postseason-ready.

The Sixers right now are operating with four good to great players in Joel Embiid, James Harden, Tyrese Maxey, and Tobias Harris. Beyond the core four, it gets dicey. Matisse Thybulle and Georges Niang are far and away the Sixers’ most important role players, but both have deep-seeded flaws that will be even harder to mask in the playoffs. The rest of the bench unit — Shake Milton, Danny Green, Furkan Korkmaz, Isaiah Joe — is full of players one-upping each other’s mediocrity. Doc Rivers could get creative and search for options deeper in the roster (Paul Reed, Charlie Brown Jr.), but unfortunately he is not open-minded enough for such exploration.

Depth becomes less important in the playoffs, when rotations shrink and lineups become more purposefully deployed. That said, Rivers has already had to shrink his rotations from time to time because the Sixers’ bench is so bad. DeAndre Jordan is not that far removed from Greg Monroe at center, and the complete absence of talent around the Sixers’ core is going to be difficult to overcome against the elite opponents. Of all the Eastern Conference contenders, Philadelphia probably has the weakest bench. That’s not ideal.