The Philadelphia 76ers went out and acquired Seth Curry in the offseason in order the get the necessary shooting to space the floor for Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid to operate on the offensive end of the floor. Philadelphia has clearly reaped the benefits as they sit at the No. 1 seed in the East with six games left to play.
Curry has been a huge help on offense as he is shooting 44% from deep on the season and he is shooting 57.1% from deep over his past nine games. That has made life easier for himself on offense and that also makes things easier for Embiid to have the space he needs to operate on offense and have an MVP caliber season.
“If you throw it to him on the block, he commands a lot of attention,” Curry explained. “If you’re gonna single cover him, then it’s either gonna be a bucket or a foul a majority of the time and if you double him, he can score in that as well, but if we kick it out, we got great shooting around him.”
The shooting Curry is referring to is himself as well as Danny Green who was another terrific offseason addition as well as Tobias Harris who has improved his shooting in a big way.
“I’m able to create space for him and give him an extra step or two to make his moves and give him more time on that block and he creates open shots for me,” Curry added. “I’ve always been a good catch and shoot player and when those balls are coming out on time and on target where our shooters are able to get our feet set, we’re hurting teams just as much as a Joel post up.”
Not only is Embiid now allowed the space to operate on the offensive end of the floor, but he is also allowed to have a good dribble hand-off connection with Curry. This is something that the big fella wanted to recreate with him a la what he had with JJ Redick.
“I think we complement each other well on both sides and also our pick-and-roll game/handoff game has been pretty good,” Curry finished. “Whether it’s I’m getting shots or he’s getting shots knocking down that midrange so it’s been a good duo.”
Philadelphia will take on the New Orleans Pelicans at 7 p.m. EDT as they look to continue toward locking down the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[lawrence-related id=45606,45576,45573]