3 fixes 76ers must make to avoid season going down drain amid injuries

Today at 09:19 AM

Have you watched the Philadelphia 76ers to begin the 2024-25 season? If you have, the chances are that you’ve regretted it. If you haven't tuned in yet, there's not much of a reason to change that.

The Sixers’ start to the season has not featured Joel Embiid and won't for two more games. Paul George has finally returned to action after a knee injury just in time for Tyrese Maxey to go down with a hamstring injury. With a record of 1-6 and a net rating that ranks second-to-last in the NBA, Philly is straight up not having a good time.

The 76ers were never going to get a top seed in the Eastern Conference with how often they intended to rest Embiid and George. It was a tradeoff they were content to make in exchange for better health. However, if the stars miss too much time or the team doesn't find a way to win enough without them, Philly may find itself in play-in territory — or worse — come April.

Although there's plenty of time for Philly to climb up the standings, the time to start getting better is right now. The team has to get better and it's everyone's responsibility to help. Players need to play sharper and smarter. Coaches need to put together strong game plans and get the team to execute. Things have to change, starting with these three fixes.

Prepare Joel Embiid to play as often as possible

The 76ers’ goal for this season was to keep Embiid healthy and well-rested for the playoffs. But if they fall too far back in the standings, there may not be any playoff positioning to speak of.

There are two options for the Sixers right now. They could be proactive and make sure Embiid is capable of playing as much as possible, starting to dig out of the hole now before it gets deeper. Or, they could be reactive and only change the plan when absolutely necessary, which runs the risk of Embiid needing to play in every single game down the stretch for the Sixers to maintain a playoff spot.

If Embiid still intends to sit out back-to-backs like said he would, fine. Those are prime chances for the big man to rest and it's not like he’ll have to get used to playing on consecutive days in the playoffs. But aside from those games, a few others that pop in the wake of minor injuries, and perhaps some precautionary absences for any lingering issues, the Sixers need their superstar each night he can go.

With how bad Philly is without Embiid, the team is going to have to be remarkably good with him. The Sixers front office underestimated both the roster and coaching staff’s ability to stay afloat without him, a goal that inspired much of their decision-making this offseason. It's hardly just a matter of dropping a few games; bottom-feeding teams make the Sixers look like one of them without their biggest keystones.

Although it's tougher to flesh out a roster when there are three max-contract players on the books, this is the path Philly chose. Those types of problems were the ones they knew they would have to solve. Their search for solutions is ongoing and dire. An easy one is to help Embiid play as much as possible, even with a handful of rest days built in.

Embiid has lamented the Sixers’ lack of continuity over the years, often pointing out how teams that win titles play together for years before breaking through. He still has a lot of chemistry to build with the likes of George, Caleb Martin, Guerschon Yabusele, Eric Gordon, and Jared McCain, whom he has never played with before, and even with guys he has played sparingly with like Kelly Oubre Jr., Kyle Lowry and K.J. Martin. Every game is a major opportunity to build cohesion.

Soon enough, getting their veteran, injury-prone star an abundance of rest is not a luxury the Sixers will be able to afford. However, because Embiid will still miss plenty more games throughout the season regardless of any changes to the plan, the Sixers have to learn how to be competitive, let alone good, without him.

Win possession battles through better rebounding and perimeter defense

The 76ers want to play faster — and have the athletes and shooting threats to be good in transition — but their pace ranks in the bottom-five leaguewide. Improvement in that area starts with getting more possessions in the first place by fixing their broken rebounding, which ranks dead last on a per-100-possession basis.

Andre Drummond’s rebounding prowess is legit. He posts gaudy totals on a game-to-game basis and opponents find it harder to rebound on both ends of the court when he plays. The catch is that Drummond is too often an impediment on both sides of the ball, shooting woefully from the field, turning the ball over, fouling too much, and being out of position on defense. Playing the team’s strongest rebounder by miles costs Philly significantly everywhere else.

Without Drummond (or Embiid), the 76ers are hopeless on the boards. Their lack of both size and defensive capabilities snowball to create disastrous effects.

Since the Sixers struggle at perimeter defense, players have to rotate to cover up miscues. Because players have to rotate, opponents — who are often taller, stronger, more athletic or some combination of the three — are free to hunt rebounds without much resistance. Because opponents can go for rebounds more easily, the Sixers can't use their athletic wings or shooters to score in transition. They have to D up again and then it's back to square one.

Guarding the perimeter is, of course, also something the Sixers must improve at. Especially when they go small, which they frequently do, they have to keep the ball in front of them and force tough shots deep into the shot clock. Any dribble penetration spells doom for them without deterrence against close shots and lobs or the rebounding prowess to close out possessions.

Having bigger wings would help Philly defend better and get a few more boards but even then, since the Sixers can't always get a clean box out, rebounding is going to be extra tough. They end up on their heels more often than their opponents and they lack a high-powered offense in the half-court to reverse course. Speaking of…

Build more rhythm and cohesion on offense

The reality of the 76ers integrating so many new players onto their roster does explain why the offense sometimes falls apart and doesn't click. That chemistry will come, purely through more reps together at the very least. Still, there are too many veterans for this offense to look so discombobulated without Embiid to do everything.

Nick Nurse is in a tough spot right now trying to formulate a new game plan that doesn't include his stars while figuring out his new roster. However, for all the endorsements he gets as a high-level tactician and innovator, his team looks lost and ineffective far too frequently. Losing games is one thing but losing a handful of games that are decided by the final few minutes is another — and that's something that should be unacceptable for a team that calls itself a title contender.

So far this season, the Sixers have been pitiful at playmaking. They pass the ball plenty but rarely do those passes contribute to breaking down a defense. Since the beginning of the 2019-20 season, they are one of 12 teams to average fewer than 20 assists per game through their first seven games. Off-ball actions haven't been fruitful, either. The offense tends to collapse into your-turn-my-turn attempts of cracking the defense, often to no avail.

This isn't entirely Nurse’s fault, though. His roster is devoid of guys who can regularly make passes into tight spaces or manipulate the defense enough to create an opening for someone else. The vision for this roster was to have role players who could take advantage of the gravity that three stars create. Still, having as many high-level passers as possible would have benefited the team with and without any of the stars. The front office either couldn't find a way to bring in any (besides Kyle Lowry) or didn't prioritize it.

Three-point shooting is a problem for the Sixers, too. They are one of the worst teams at shooting threes from above the break. Their percentage on threes from the corner is 48.0, one of the best in the league. Even if it's going to stabilize eventually, that's promising. But because the team has such a dearth of creators and playmakers, they struggle mightily to even get those looks. Oh, and on the restricted area, the Sixers have the worst shooting percentage in the league. There's also that, too, just for fun.

The 76ers need answers on offense but they're not completely screwed. They have one of the best free-throw-attempt rates in the NBA. They’ve shown an ability to be a force on the offensive glass. Maxey and George are both immensely talented, players that are markedly better than the best players on numerous other teams. But for those teams to find it so easy to stop the 76ers’ offense should spark a profound sense of urgency in improving.

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