The Philadelphia 76ers have an awkward roster filled with a lot of really non-shooters. They have capable shooters, but not any sharpshooters that will make a big difference on a team and that is the difference right now.
That means they have to rely on a guy like Al Horford who is having a bit of a down year in terms of shooting the 3-ball and that has hurt the offense a bit. He is shooting 33.2% from deep with the Sixers compared to 36% from deep in his final season with the Boston Celtics.
In Horford’s defense, he is shooting 4.4 attempts from deep on the season compared to just 3.0 per game in Boston, but this is what he signed up for. The Sixers asked him to shoot more threes in Philadelphia.
“I had a good idea,” he said. “That was something that was mentioned.”
In Thursday’s win over the New York Knicks, Horford knocked down all four of his attempts from deep. That will be something that Philadelphia will be needing and, really expecting, over the next few months to make sure they have the proper spacing on the offensive end of the floor.
“Shooter’s shoot,” he said at practice on Saturday. “I’m going to keep letting it fly. I know that they will start to fly.”
Al Horford on shooting struggles: “shooter’s shoot, I’m going to keep letting it fly” #Sixers
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) February 29, 2020
The Sixers had better hope that they drop. When the playoffs begin, everybody will have their eye on this team. Another big thing in the playoffs is that a team’s warts will begin to show.
It will be up to Horford–and really guys like Tobias Harris and Josh Richardson as well–to make sure they provide the offense with enough space over the next few months to make a deep run into the postseason. [lawrence-related id=26768,26762,26753]