Philadelphia 76ers Breakdown: Sixers Have Talent, Need A Leader

The Philadelphia 76ers disappointing season took another hit, losing to the New York Knicks 93-92 when Rodney Carney’s jumper at the buzzer rimmed out.

The Sixers have suffered too many poor performances from too many important players. Whereas in the past couple of seasons, Andre Miller could rescue the Sixers stagnant offense by pushing the ball in transition, making wonderful decisions, seeing all and every opening in a defense, and always delivering the ball where it needed to go, these Sixers are at the mercy of their own individual machinations.

Let’s look at what’s working and what isn’t.


Working Fine


Playing with a heavy heart after the earthquake in his native Haiti, Sam Dalembert played as focused a game as he’s ever played in his NBA career—6-for-8 FG, 21 REB, 1 AST, 2 TO, 1 STL, 1 BLK, 12 PTS.

Aside from a drizzle of isolation's where Dalembert would drive from 16-feet out on either side of the court before unearthing a pull-up jumper or a sweeping hook, Dalembert was content to do most of his damage on the backboards, which he terrorized. Included in Dalembert’s 21 rebounds were seven crucial offensive boards.

Aside from his board work, the most impressive aspect of Dalembert’s game was his number of bad shot attempts.

Zero.

No 20-foot jumpers early in the shot clock. No twisting 18-foot fall-aways. No drives into double teams resulting in turnovers. In fact, Dalembert’s only force was a drive in close quarters where a help defender knocked the ball off Dalembert’s leg out of bounds. Dalembert stuck to the game plan his skill set provides: attacking the glass, running the floor, and an occasional post up. Staying within those tenements, Dalembert had a great game.

Dalembert also executed more good rotations around the basket than bad ones, boxed out, and generally played active, alert defense.

Now why can’t he play this coordinated more often?

Allen Iverson was able to tease Knicks defenders before splashing pull-up mid-range jumpers over them—8-for-14 FG, 16 PTS. He also didn’t dominate the ball, made snappy passes throughout, and was thoroughly unselfish—5 AST, 1 TO.

Even on the last shot of the game, Iverson turned down a relatively open 18-footer to give it to Carney for an uncontested three.

Has Iverson turned a new leaf? Is he so overcome with the joy of returning to his roots that he’s willing to kick his own bad basketball habits? The indicators point to yes and yes.

Andre Iguodala is always willing to attack, find open teammates, and make smart decisions—8 AST, 0 TO.

Jrue Holliday, Willie Green, and Rodney Carney had the stroke, shooting 6-for-12 combined on threes.

Lou Williams has the quickness to get wherever he needs to go whenever he needs to get there.

Marreese Speights is a prime-time offensive player. He’s quick, he’s strong, he has touch on his jump shot, and he can finish with either hand—4-for-4 FG, 6 REB, 10 PTS. The question is, why did Eddie Jordan wait until the 9 minute mark in the fourth quarter to insert him into the game?

Thaddeus Young’s on-ball defense was A-OK, especially on David Lee.

Willie Green’s defense and decision making were solid.

As were Elton Brand’s interior rotations.

All told, the Sixers did enough good things to almost come away with a victory. However, not everything was working up to snuff.


Not Working


While Iguodala is a fantastic athlete, he’s never developed his jump shot to the point where he’s dangerous from the perimeter—2-for-9 FG, 4 PTS. Iguodala was 1-for-8 from outside the paint, and went scoreless in the first half. His only two baskets were an uncontested dunk and an 18-foot jump shot.

Without the young Allen Iverson or Andre Miller making plays, Iguodala has struggled to score in Philadelphia’s half court as teams squarely focus their attention on him. As a result, his shooting percentages are the lowest of his career.

Until Iguodala develops a consistent jump shot to punish teams, he’ll strictly be a second-class offensive player. He’s simply not talented enough to dissect the sagging defenses and help defense attention he now faces on a regular basis. And with him struggling to score, the Sixers have followed suit, at least when they haven’t been able to run.

Thaddeus Young—3-for-13 FG, 5-5 FT, 11 PTS—is a baseline cutter and slasher who also misses the cookies afforded to him by Miller. Young’s attempts at creating his own shot were neutralized by Wilson Chandler.

Elton Brand has no explosion anymore. He’s a slow mover, a slow jumper, and couldn’t create space for his various hooks and step-throughs—2-for-9 FG, 1-2 FT, 0 AST, 2 TO, 5 PTS.

Sadly, due to age and injuries, Brand isn’t the dominant force he was on the Clippers. However, his contract runs for three more years after this season for $16-, $17-, and $18 million per year. Essentially, he’s untradeable and will eat into Philadelphia’s ability to sign or retain impact free agents.

Lou Williams was abysmal—1-for-7 FG, 4 AST, 3 TO, 5 PTS. He missed three layups, made an awful decision on a four-on-one fast break to not give the ball up and barrel into a Knicks defender for a charge, and forced a too-quick jump shot.

Defensively, because he was playing the two-guard with Iverson in the backcourt, he was posted up repeatedly by Chandler. The Sixers were forced to double and cross court passes picked the Sixers apart.

Williams isn’t the decision maker or post defender Miller was and the Sixers are paying the price.

All told, the Sixers missed 12 layups, including five by Young, three by Williams, and one apiece for Iverson, Brand, Green, and Dalembert. Convert any of those and the Sixers end up with a win.

While Dalembert’s help defense was okay, he was much worse when defending the ball. Against Lee, Jared Jeffries, and Chandler, Dalembert alone was responsible for allowing 16 of the Knicks first quarter points primarily by getting beaten off the dribble. When he did sag off, Lee just sank jumpers in his face forcing the Sixers to switch Young on to Lee.

Holliday isn’t a point guard. Twice he failed to anticipate zigs instead of zags and wound up passing the ball to Knicks defenders.

While Carney made the Nets dance from the perimeter, his potential game winning three was wide open. In other words, he choked.

As talented as Speights is on offense, his defense is atrocious. On the Knicks game winning basket, a screen/roll involving Chris Duhon and Lee with the side cleared out, the Sixers had Iverson going over the screen with Dalembert shadowing Duhon’s penetration. It was Speights’ responsibility to rotate down and pick up Lee. He failed to do so, Lee converted the layup, the Knicks won and the Sixers lost.

All told, the Sixers are an interesting case of talented pieces playing without a leader. Acquiring Iverson helps their offense by giving them another scorer who can make plays for others, but with him and Williams, the Sixers are essentially playing with two small two-guards whose strengths don’t involve running an offense.

What do the Sixers need to make a run at a third straight postseason berth?

• The triumphant return of Andre Miller
• Time machines for everybody. A trip to the future for Williams and Speights, a trip to the past for Brand and Iverson.
• The Sixers may be better off starting Speights or Brand over Young so they have more post defense and a scoring threat near the basket. Dalembert is at his worst when he’s defending the post. This will also open up more minutes for Speights.
• On the flip side, if the Sixers choose to keep giving Young minutes, they may be better off relinquishing Brand’s spot in the rotation to Speights. This would maximize the Sixers running lineup, making sure their best athletes are getting the most minutes. Of course, doing so means the Sixers will have a $50 million paperweight at the end of the bench for the next three years.

The Sixers youngsters are still too young to be ready for prime-time, while the veterans, aside from Iguodala and Dalembert, are passed their prime. However, the pieces are there for the Sixers to make a run; all they need is a veteran leader to organize the players and put them in their best positions to succeed.

Over the past two seasons, Andre Miller was the player the Sixers clustered around as he shaped the team from a nebulous mass of talent into a playoff nucleus. However, without that presence tethering them, the Sixers are again a loose collection of talent looking for someone to gravitate to.