The Philadelphia 76ers entered the 2019-20 season hoping to buck the current NBA trend of small ball by trying to win with bigger guys and play some smash-mouth basketball. Unfortunately, they’ve had some issues with trying to implement that style successfully.
Philadelphia is in the midst of a four-game losing skid that has dropped them to the 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, not exactly what people had expected when they brought in Al Horford and Josh Richardson in the offseason. During the skid, the Sixers clunky offense has averaged only 104 points per 100 possessions which, putting it lightly, is just not good.
Joel Embiid has taken the brunt of the lack of spacing the Sixers have had as he has been receiving double teams every night and it’s affecting him in a tough way. He scored 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting in the loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night to finish an 0-4 road trip and he then expressed his frustrations that the losses are taking a toll on him.
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon then added that the Sixers are looking for more shooters with playmaking ability to help the team’s moribund offense ahead of the February 6 trade deadline. MacMahon wrote:
The Sixers’ poor spacing is of particular concern, especially for Embiid. Sources say the Sixers will search the trade market for perimeter shooting threats with playmaking ability, a need that was apparent as Philadelphia went 6-of-27 from 3-point range Friday night.
There are plenty of options that general manager Elton Brand and the Sixers could seek out. They could look for a guy like Alec Burks pf the Golden State Warriors or maybe one of the players on the Detroit Pistons since it seems that they are ready to blow things up with the Andre Drummond trade rumors. They could look at a shooter like Langston Galloway or Luke Kennard or maybe even Derrick Rose.
No matter how you look at it, the experiment is on rocky terms right now. The Sixers need to make a move to bring in a shooter and help their offense. [lawrence-related id=22692,22667,22659]