Yes, you can absolutely say that the Philadelphia 76ers, at 36-23 and currently in the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference standings, are a disaster.
Even before injuries to Ben Simmons and, now, Joel Embiid — who left Wednesday night’s awful loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers (!) with a sprained shoulder — the Sixers are a huge disappointment. Those two superstars were surrounded by serious talent in the offseason, with Josh Richardson coming over in the Jimmy Butler trade, Tobias Harris re-signing and Al Horford bringing some veteran savvy to a young team.
They were supposed to be among the top teams in the East, but they look like an also-ran waiting to be eliminated in the first round of the postseason. So who’s to blame? Let’s break it down as we’ve done before, by assigning it to various parties.
Elton Brand: 50 percent
The concept seems simple on paper: if Simmons isn’t going to shoot and Embiid does much of his work inside, then you have to surround them with shooters. Brand, as general manager, thought he did with Richardson and Harris stretching defenses, but the former has only hit 32.8 percent of his threes and the latter has nailed 36 percent. Horford hits 1.4 threes per game, but still: not enough.
Just a season ago, the Sixers had a more balanced roster — they had JJ Redick, Robert Covington, Landry Shamet and Dario Saric all able to hit from deep. Redick left in free agency, Covington and Saric were part of the Butler trade, and Shamet was dealt to the Clippers in the Harris trade. Redick, it turns out, was way more valuable, and the money spent on Horford — who’s a terrible fit all around — could have gone toward him or other shooter(s) of his ilk.
Brett Brown: 25 percent
The Sixers fell to an abysmal 9-21 on the road, the same record away from home that the New York Knicks have. To me, that screams effort and, therefore, it falls on the coach to get more out of the team. A recent Philadelphia Inquirer column agrees:
Brown has built every team he’s ever coached around strict defensive tenets and defined defensive roles. Somehow, this team loses its defensive identity outside of the Wells Fargo Center.
This is the blackest mark against Brown in his seven turbulent seasons at the helm.
Why?
Because, Brown admitted, the bad defense comes from a lack of cohesion; poor execution of their system; and lousy attention to the details to the defensive game plan on any given night. Worse yet, Brown says that the team needs to play tightly, with more “spirit.”
Ben Simmons’ lack of shooting: 10 percent
We know he’s been practicing, we know he can hit them in games very, very occasionally … but the next step is trying a lot more than six attempts.
BEN SIMMONS WITH ANOTHER 3 pic.twitter.com/3DLaVPZxwz
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 8, 2019
What a difference it would make if he would just try, like, three a game!
Injury luck: 5 percent
Not much you can do when your two franchise pillars miss time.
High expectations: 5 percent
The pressure was on to join the Bucks, Raptors and Celtics as the East’s elite. Sometimes, that weight can get to you … and with a team like the Heat, the lack of pressure lets you sneak under the radar.
Kawhi Leonard: 5 percent
Why him? Because, man, this has to still sting like a year later. To be that close and miss out in a Game 7 and then watch as your team underachieves the next season … oof:
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