Biggest Surprises and Disappointments for Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers have had a season full of surprises and disappointments as they continue to dwell in the NBA's basement.
Having the league's youngest team is bound to come with a number of challenges. Inexperience breeds mistakes, and the Sixers continue to make a number of them. It's as severe as intentionally putting a team on the floor who isn't nearly as talented as the majority of its opponents, to being minor like having a particular player throw a bad pass.
The biggest challenge of all will eventually become how the Sixers turn consistent losing into a winning and championship culture. It's not something the team needs to currently focus on, though.
Their most important focus has to be on improving as basketball players and as a unit. Hopefully the mentality of winning comes with it.
Until then, here's a look at the biggest surprises and disappointments of Philly's 2014-15 season thus far.
All statistics in this article are accurate as of games played through Dec. 25.
Disappointment: Michael Carter Williams Turning the Ball over
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It's still unclear, but it is beginning to look like Michael Carter-Williams might need to get his eyes checked sometime in the near future.
He just keeps throwing the basketball to the other team.
His numbers as a rookie were more understandable. Carter-Williams averaged 6.3 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game. It was a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio, but it was only his first season, and he was still able to capture the Rookie of the Year award. Fast-forward to his second season, and his numbers have only gotten worse. Carter-Williams is now putting up 7.6 assists and 4.5 turnovers.
Yes, 4.5 turnovers.
His assist-to-turnover ratio is now at 1.68, and he doesn't look to be cleaning up his play anytime soon. Carter-Williams has turned the ball over three times or fewer in only four of the 20 games he has played in. That's not a typo, either.
Anyone who knows basketball will tell you that he is an incredibly talented point guard who matches the profile of the future of the position. He has the size, athleticism and mental aptitude to end up as one of the league's top young players.
Carter-Williams' problem is that he hasn't shown the ability to take care of the basketball yet. It's disappointing because he can't take the next step in his development until this problem is taken care of.
Surprise: The Sixers' Record on the Road
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There are 10 NBA team's who have lost at least 10 games on the road this year.
Philadelphia is not one of them.
In fact, each of the Sixers' four wins has come away from home. Being 4-9 on the road isn't great by any stretch, but it's significantly better than the team's 0-14 record when playing in Philadelphia.
It would be easy to think that playing in Philly would lead to a more natural atmosphere. One that a young team would be more comfortable with, and lead to a better chance of winning. The amazing part is that this kind of thinking couldn't be further from the truth.
Philadelphia has simply played much better on the road than it has on its home court, and it's been incredibly surprising.
Disappointment: Philadelphia's Disturbing Shooting Numbers
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Here's a look at how the Sixers rank among the league in a variety of different shooting categories:
| Shooting Statistic | Percentage | NBA Rank |
| Field-Goal Percentage | .413 | Tied for No. 30 (Last) |
| Three-Point Percentage | .302 | No. 30 (Last) |
| Free-Throw Percentage | .685 | No. 30 (Last) |
There are almost no words to describe how horrible Philadelphia's shooting numbers are. If they were to average these kind of stats over the course of three games, then it would be safe to say that the Sixers aren't shooting well.
The fact that the team has done this over the course of 27 games says that Philly can't shoot.
It's led to the Sixers averaging 91.4 points per game—also bad enough to be last in the league. Poor shooting has a number of residual effects that aren't immediately visible. For one, it's demoralizing and only leads to more misses. A different and even more extreme result of missing shots is that it gives the other team more chances to score. The ball going through the hoop prevents transition opportunities for the opponent, and Philadelphia clearly does a poor job at making this happen.
It will take a stretch of good shooting to turn these kinds of numbers around. It's disappointing that they even got to this point to begin with.
Surprise: K.J. McDaniels' Defensive Performance
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K.J. McDaniels was the No. 32 pick in the second round of the NBA draft, but he has gotten his career off to a better start than most of the 31 people selected in front of him.
McDaniels isn't anything out of the ordinary at first glance. He's a prototypical shooting guard and small forward at 6'6" with an impressive amount of athleticism. Being an above-average shooter and ball-handler never brought more attention to the young man than it should have. These reasons were probably why he fell so far in the draft.
What does stand out about him has to be seen at the NBA level to be completely appreciated—especially at the defensive end of the floor. His 6'11" wingspan and instincts put him on a different level when it comes to defense.
Even as only a rookie.
His averages of 1.6 blocks and 0.9 steals don't pop out, but it's important to remember that he got off to a slow start. Putting up 2.1 blocks and 1.2 steals per game in the month of December is more reflective of what McDaniels is capable of.
Being a second-round pick has the potential to ruin a player or give him a reason to prove people wrong. McDaniels has done that and more in his first season for the Sixers.
He's also given us blocks like this, which are always fun.
Disappointment: Nerlens Noel's Progress
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Let's start this off by saying that Nerlens Noel has been a very solid rookie thus far. He's currently averaging 7.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. Respectable numbers, to be sure, but they're not fantastic.
And Noel has had every chance to be fantastic.
He has played more in his rookie year than most people expected after sitting out for the entire 2013-14 season while recovering from a torn ACL. Since then, he has played in 24 games and averages the third-most minutes on the team at 30.5 per game. There isn't an opportunity out there that Noel hasn't been presented, and it's clear that he hasn't taken complete advantage of every one.
Again, he hasn't been a bust by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that he's left something to be desired. An example of this is with his offensive game.
One of the main benefits of sitting out with a lower-body injury is that a player is given an opportunity to work on certain parts of his game once healthy enough to put weight on the injury. An example of this is shooting. Noel had over a year to work on his jumper and different parts of his offensive game while sidelined with the injury, but he doesn't look much better offensively now than he did when he was playing at the University of Kentucky.
Shooting 44.3 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from the free-throw line show the lack of growth, and it's a bit disappointing.
Noel is still only 20 years old, so he clearly has plenty of time to make the kind of jumps necessary to reach his potential.
It just would have been nice to see more of his work on display during his rookie season.
Surprise: How Good the Basketball Being Played Actually Is
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There was talk about how bad the Sixers were going to be before the season even started. The 2013-14 season saw Philadelphia finish with a 19-63 record, and it was clear that the 2014-15 season wasn't going to be any better. The team spent both its 2014 lottery picks on two players who likely wouldn't see the floor this season in Joel Embiid and Dario Saric.
This year's Sixers team was not built to be fun to watch, yet that's exactly what they are.
There aren't any players who are on pace to make this season's All-Star Game, nobody averages more than 16.3 points per game and only three people even score in double-figures. Still though, the Sixers have assembled a team who has moments where they are genuinely exciting to watch.
CSN Philly's Andrew Kulp put it best when he talked about what it was like to watch Philadelphia currently play versus in year's past:
"It may not show in the wins column, but to many fans, this is an improvement over the previous product, which was going nowhere fast and reaching its destination in the most utterly boring fashion possible. If nothing else, at least we don’t know where the Sixers will ultimately wind up when Hinkie’s plan has finally come to fruition. For too long, we’ve known all too well how the story ends.
Even if this all winds up ending similarly, somewhere far down the road, at least we weren’t subjected to the usual parade of aging, overpaid stiffs who have nothing to offer a rebuilding team. Maybe the Sixers front office didn’t assemble this roster with winning the most games in mind, but it’s still vastly more interesting this way.
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The Sixers aren't battling for a postseason spot with a roster full of aging players who don't have much long-term upside. Instead, they're arguably the least talented team, yet still young, athletic and have a world of potential.
Winning isn't always an option, but the Sixers still make the majority of their games fun to watch simply based on how hard they play.
It's probably the most surprising part of the Philadelphia 76ers this season.
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