Between the blockbuster trade they pulled off for Jaylen Brown and their massive victory in the LeBron James bidding war, the Philadelphia 76ers now have arguably the most formidable roster in the NBA--at least on paper. That being said, their new superteam could very well stumble upon a major problem right from the get-go, which is the lack of reliable three-point shooting in their projected starting five.
Assuming that the 76ers start James, Brown, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecombe, the team will be starting games with only one player (Maxey) who canned at least 36 percent of his triples this past season. That is certainly a statistical nugget the team will have to pay close attention to, as it could make them a tad easier to defend than expected.
The 76ers might have a major three-point shooting issue in their projected starting five
Edgecombe and Brown were both hit-and-miss from three-point range last season, although they did have volume to make up for it. The same, however, cannot be said for James and Embiid, who were simply not proficient from downtown in the previous campaign. Well, that cannot be the case next season.
With five players who all need the ball in their hands to score, the 76ers are going to need all of them to still have some utility without the rock. A barely league-average shooting clip from downtown, much less a below-average one, is simply not going to cut it if the team wants as much optimal spacing around their stars as possible.
Early in the season, that could be a defining problem. This team is going to take some time before it figures out how to make the most of its abundance of talent scoring-wise, so the spacing could feel clunky to start the campaign off. As such, the coaches will have to find some workarounds and tinker with lineups in order to mitigate this issue.
Obviously, things will be way easier if their stars see an uptick in their percentages, but that is not something the coaches can or should fully rely on. These players will want to attack relentlessly at all times, but to smooth the offense out, more than respectable spacing will be necessary. For now, that is not something the team can resolutely say it possesses.
Hopefully, the team will be able to fully maximize the preseason in order to see where to station their players best when they do not have the ball in their hands. Fortunately, they seem healthy enough to have a clean, dry run before the season begins.
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