Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios for Philadelphia 76ers in Month of December
December in the NBA has been good to the Philadelphia 76ers as they have accomplished their season-long goal and won not one, but two basketball games thus far.
Is there any way for a best-case scenario to turn even better?
We would probably be getting ahead of ourselves if we said anything along the lines of "this is just the beginning for the Sixers" because there's no way for anything to be the beginning when a team starts the season with a 2-18 record.
Still though, Philly looks to definitely be on the right track, and there's no telling when better things might come. Anything like a win, extraordinary performance by a random player or even a competitive spirit would fall in Philadelphia's favor.
We also must remember—though it's impossible to forget—how this team managed to start the year off going 0-17. The moral of that story is that the Sixers might look good now, but it could definitely get worse by the end of the month.
Here's a look at the team's best- and worst-case scenarios as they continue down the rest of December.
Worst-Case Scenario: Attendance Stops Climbing
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Attendance at home games is generally a perfect correlation with success. If a team is winning, then people will find their way to the seats. If a team is losing, then those in their seats might have a chance to stretch their legs onto the ones in front of them.
The Philadelphia Business Journal's John George wrote a short piece on how this trend hasn't completely taken place for Philly at home yet. Here's what Sixers CEO Scott O'Neil told George about how his interactions with fans go:
"When I am out at events I hear it all the time. Fans are saying, 'Stay the course.' We believe in our plans and fans are saying they are in, but we are not taking anything for granted."
Philadelphia comes in at No. 29 in average attendance of home games, averaging 14,315. The Detroit Pistons are the only NBA organization with a lower number of people going to their games.
The craziest part about the entire attendance situation happens to be how Philly is currently ahead of last season's 13,689 average. This is both good and bad. The good is clearly that more people are interested in what the Sixers have to offer.
The bad is that fans could possibly be making a real statement about their feelings on everything in the next couple of games. Patience is running incredibly thin, and both Philadelphia and those who support the team have the time to continue to watch such blatant struggles on the floor.
Best-Case Scenario: Brett Brown Continues to Stay Motivated
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Brett Brown might not have ever been a head coach in the NBA before joining the Sixers, but he continues to prove that he was the perfect hire and right man for Philadelphia's job.
ESPN recently captured one of Brown's interviews as he was brutally honest, yet deceptively positive about how Philly had started the 2014-15 season:
"Everything we're doing is about winning. I coach to win. I talk about winning. We plan to win. We prepare to win. I get why [tanking] comes up, but it's not even close.
Where do you begin? I left Disneyland with Pop in San Antonio. We won 50 games every one of my years, went to five NBA Finals, won four of them. To come in now and have the challenge of coaching. ... It's the youngest team in the history of the sport. We're the team with the least experience.
The challenges are all over the place. From trying to grow the team, to make sure they don't feel deflated, that they feel good about themselves. ... But I love it. Even though what I know now, with two draft picks not playing this year, I'd take this job 50 times out of 50 times.
"
To Brown's credit, the whole idea of tanking has nothing to do with him. He's not told to go out and lose on a nightly basis. Tanking comes from a management level, much higher up than Brown, who is simply given the tools to do the job.
Regardless of how rough some of the tools are.
He's somehow managed to keep everything about basketball, and continuing to teach the young players skills that will benefit them now and in the future. Hitting the 30-game mark is a good time for a coach to check out of the entire process if things aren't going his way.
Brown failing to fall into this trap will be crucial for Philadelphia's long-term success.
There's not much reason to worry here, though. The man has been nothing but honest, and has continued to carry a positive attitude for well over a year with the Sixers now.
If he's made it this long, then it's safe to assume Brown's got more in his tank.
Worst-Case Scenario: The Ball Continues to Not Go Through the Basket
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According to Team Rankings, the Sixers have the NBA's second-fastest pace of play, averaging 101.3 possessions per game. They go up and down the court with the best of them, thriving on getting out and running the floor.
The issue is that it's not translating into points.
Like at all.
In fact, Philadelphia is scoring only 92 points per game, bad enough for the NBA's lowest points per game average. This gets even worse when we consider they allow an average of 104.1 points (but that's a different argument for a different seven articles).
The lack of scoring can be attributed to a number of different shooting factors.
The first is how Philly is the second-worst shooting team in the league with a field-goal percentage of 41.4. Combine that with an NBA-worst 29.9 three-point percentage, and we see how poor the foundation is. While we're at it, the Sixers are also averaging 3 percent less than any other team from the free-throw line at 66.4 percent, and throw the ball away 17.4 times per game—also last.
Pretty bad, right?
They are an absolute mess from the offensive end, and continuing to do so would only make matters worse.
Best-Case Scenario: Nerlens Noel Tips Scale and Turns into Double-Double Machine
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Nerlens Noel isn't currently playing like a possible Rookie of the Year, but his progress from the first game to now is incredibly positive.
An example of this is the difference between his statistics on the second night of back-to-backs.
Philadelphia's first one took place on Nov. 1 against the Miami Heat, and Noel had two points, five rebounds, one steal and one block in 25 minutes. Compare that to 17 points, 12 rebounds, one block and one steal in 39 minutes against the New York Knicks on Nov. 22, and we see the huge jump Noel made in a little over two weeks.
The key number in the prior paragraph has to be the drastic jump in minutes played. Remember, the Sixers held Noel out of the second day of back-to-back games during the NBA Summer League. He's not only playing now, but was able to compete for 39 minutes after playing in a contest the night before.
The fact that there aren't any lingering issues surrounding his knee can't be overstated.
His health is one of the reasons why it's possible that Noel turns into a double-double machine on a nightly basis. He's currently had at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in three games thus far. The difference between the extra rebound or basket to have him hit the mark will only get shortened with experience, and maybe it'll take place by the end of 2014.
Just maybe.
Worst-Case Scenario: Michael Carter-Williams Plateaus
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Here are Michael Carter-Williams' statistics in Philadelphia's games in December thus far:
| Opponent | Points | Assists | Rebounds | Steals | Turnovers | Minutes |
| San Antonio Spurs | 24 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 4 | 35 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | 20 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 43 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | 16 | 14 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 42 |
| Detroit Pistons | 20 | 15 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 45 |
For any and all who can't do lightning-fast mental math, the man is averaging 20.0 points, 11.3 assists, 8.8 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 5.3 turnovers. Those numbers ended in a negative light with the turnovers, but there's no denying how amazing and complete Carter-Williams' game has been of late.
It makes it that much worse to think about him struggling to come close to these numbers, and to see his game begin to plateau.
He's currently the only Sixers player putting up All-Star-like numbers—that's both a joke because of the record, and accurate from a numerical standpoint—and it wouldn't be too difficult for teams to key in on the second-year point guard to take him out of the game almost completely. That would remove Carter-Williams and leave the rest of Philadelphia to beat the opposition.
Pregame adjustments from different organizations are so good that it's impossible to predict what other franchises will choose to do when it comes to defending him.
The good news is that Carter-Williams should be far too versatile to ever let a team take him away in every way. He's not good at taking care of the basketball right now, but his shot selection has become significantly better in December as he's shooting 45.7 percent from the field.
Here's to hoping for continued success during the season that keeps on giving.
Best- and Worst-Case Scenario: Philadelphia Doesn't Win Another Game All Month
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A terrible analogy for this slide would be to compare losing the rest of December's games to getting a bad sunburn. That immediate and short-term pain is no joke, but wow...does it have the potential to pay off.
A sunburn can lead to a great tan. Losing for the rest of the month might be what's needed to put Philly in a position to get a top draft pick and end tankapalooza once and for all.
Creating an environment where losing isn't only accepted, but encouraged, is a dangerous game to play, though. One of the key reasons is because the team could have a tendency to fall back into old habits, even when the talent is at a winning level.
The potential for some kind of backfire isn't necessarily too large, but it's still something to keep an eye on.
Finishing December with a 2-28 record would be both fantastic and incredibly embarrassing all at once. It's all a matter of perspective at that point.
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