The dilemma for the Philadelphia 76ers continues to be roster fit. The pieces are odd and it’s still strange to see the team try to execute offensively in half-court situations and that has caused coach Brett Brown to begin to call plays offensively, which is not what he wants to do.
He has come to that realization that he has to step up and call plays for his team in order to run the offense that he likes to run. There are times when the Sixers are still trying to work themselves out and Brown taking the reins back is helping them move forward on that end.
“From time to time, I feel like we are unorganized,” said big man Joel Embiid. “The fact that he does it, I think it’s good.”
This offense can get clunky, as evidenced by their poor offensive numbers during the road trip, but when they do what they’re supposed to do, they can take off. They scored 120 points in a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night because they were much more organized thanks to Brown for getting them into their sets.
“It’s just kind of made it a little bit more organized,” added Josh Richardson. “I think we’re all still finding a balance of getting the ball, running, and letting us play and then stopping, slowing us down, and really executing, but I think every game it’s gotten better. It’s just going to be a process for the next probably few games still.”
To Richardson’s point, Brown has made the adjustment of having him be the pick-and-roll initiator and have Ben Simmons become the roller. Those things don’t happen on the Sixers teams of the past relying so much on dribble handoffs to JJ Redick and Marco Belinelli and guys like that. This is a new team that has to adjust to its new personnel.
“It’s just a new team,” said Simmons. “We’re playing different sets and plays. It’s not the same sets as if we had JJ here or Marco, guys like that. So it’s a different team and we have to work out different things and find a flow.”
With all things, this will still take a lot of time. There are a lot of different things that need to get worked out and there are still a lot of kinks on this team. Everybody is learning that this will take a little bit longer than expected.
Brown beginning to step in and call the plays and put his stamp on the team will help them moving forward.
“You start figuring out what works, what doesn’t work,” Simmons added. Who’s in the game, who’s not. You start to figure it out.” [lawrence-related id=22883,22874,22862]