In order to succeed in today’s NBA, a team needs to be able to have the necessary shooting and floor spacing to be able to get to work on the offensive end. That is especially true for the Philadelphia 76ers who need to be able to allow star duo Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons to operate.
The team decided to go big in 2019 bringing in Al Horford and Josh Richardson in order to compete with the size of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks were the best team in the East in the 2019-20 season, but Philadelphia did not get past the Boston Celtics in Round 1 due to a lack of shooting.
Embiid averaged 30 points in the series, but the pieces around him did not step up and knock down the necessary shots. So, new president Daryl Morey and general manager Elton Brand went out and acquired Seth Curry and Danny Green who are two proven shooters.
“I’m always going to take the blame, but then again, we didn’t have what we needed,” said Embiid. “Especially when it came to shooting because nowadays, you got to be able to shoot the ball, you got to be able to space the floor. It’s hard to play just inside out all the time.”
Embiid was almost unstoppable in the post in 2020 and he was very good in the playoffs against the smaller Celtics, but the team had trouble scoring around him due to the fact that they could not knock down open threes.
“What I told them was, we just need more shooting,” the big man continued. “That was apparent looking at last year. We weren’t able to shoot the ball well. I thought they did a good job. I feel bad for the guys that we lost, those were my guys, but I thought them adding shooting was great.”
The team had success offensively in the past with shooting around Embiid and Simmons. Such as when the team had guys like JJ Redick and Robert Covington in the past, their offensive rating was 115.6 as a pairing per Cleaning the Glass in 2017-18 and it was 117.0 in the 2018-19 season.
Having shooters around those two is very important for their success and that is what a guy like Curry, as an example, can bring to the table over a guy like Richardson.
“I’m super excited to play with him,” Simmons said of Curry. “He can pass the ball, his IQ’s very high, he moves with pace, he cuts with intention. I think it’s going to be very similar to my first couple years having JJ around, guys like that, and Marco (Belinelli). I think that experience I had with JJ is going to help this team a lot just by having a guy like Seth and Danny Green. I’m excited to get on the floor with him.”
Of course, it all has to be worked out on the floor, but on paper, the Sixers look to be better equipped to win a title than in the previous season. [lawrence-related id=39832,39829,39810]