PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers have considerable talent on the roster as they head into the 2022-23 season. They are led by stars Joel Embiid and James Harden, rising star Tyrese Maxey and a strong supporting cast, but it will take time to become a team.
The Milwaukee Bucks, the champions in 2021, and the Boston Celtics, who reached the finals in 2022, have been together for years. Therefore, those teams have chemistry, and they have been through the wars together. The Sixers still have to develop the chemistry necessary to catch up to the Bucks and the Celtics.
“One thing I will say that is really good for us is we communicate well off the court,” said Maxey. “We have a good group of guys that really like each other and really like being around each other. That’s really going to transfer onto the court.”
From a coach’s perspective, there has to be more work on the court. As mentioned, the Bucks and the Celtics already know who and what they are. The Sixers are not quite there yet.
“As a coach, you look around, you look at some of the teams that have been together and teams that have the advantage there,” said coach Doc Rivers. “Milwaukee, Boston even. They made some changes, but they still have their core guys and we’re still moving that core around so those are the teams that teams like us and teams that have made a lot of changes, you have to put a lot of work in. You have to put more work in because they do have an advantage and that’s the only way you catch it.”
The work the Sixers continue to put in on the court and the communication off it should accelerate their team building. However, it will not happen overnight.
“It’s really been big with PJ (Tucker) and James and the big fella communication-wise,” Maxey added. “We’re able to have those hard conversations now and be able to get on each other during the game, because of the relationships that we built off the court. That’s going to take some time, of course, to build the team that we want to be, but I think that expedites the process because of the communication and the relationships that we’ve built.”
The Sixers have two preseason games left before the season opener on Oct. 18. They will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday and the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=69063]
[lawrence-related id=69066,69060,69056]