Improved support cast for the Sixers
Philadelphia 76ers had an issue with the players not performing at their best throughout the 2022 season. Surpassingly a potent backup for Embiid – DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond were terrible throughout the regular season.
Ever-productive Paul Millsap and Danny Green were shut down for a whole year. Of course, Green suffered an injury that limited his performance, but the rest of the bench performance was not encouraging enough. We even saw Ben Simmons warming the bench night in and night out.
But David Morey pulled the strings in the concurrent off-season and eliminated most of the deadwood. Many might question his trades and selection of positions to improve on, but no one can argue that the 2023 Philadelphia 76ers roster is far better than the 2022 one.
Budding stars like Paul Reed and Shake Melton are progressing slowly. The youngsters showed a fair 15 points improvement as a group than last season. De’Anthony Melton and PJ Tucker’s addition provided the required experience and solidity to the support unit. Mid-season addition Jalen McDaniels is settling well with the team and already has an impactful game against the Wolves.
Yes, the bench is not as deep or flashy as some of the competitors in the league, but ratings suggest it has improved a lot to give our star players some breathers. They have even performed well without Embiid or Harden in the games.