Philadelphia 76ers: Five Keys to the Post All-Star Break Season
Now that we’ve arrived at the NBA’s All-Star Break, one thing’s been made crystal clear about the Philadelphia 76ers: This isn’t the same lifeless team that started off the season 3-13.
That 3-13 team looked terrifyingly similar to last year’s embarrassment, a squad that hadn’t bought into what the coach was preaching at all. Luckily, the Sixers had Doug Collins on the bench this year, instead of the Princeton offense-preaching Eddie Jordan.
Since their putrid start, the Sixers have ripped off a 24-16 record in the past two months. And many, including myself, have credited Collins with the team’s rapid about face.
Collins settled on a rotation after 15 games, eventually sending Jodie Meeks into the starting lineup at shooting guard. The result? The Sixers finally had a legitimate three-point shooting threat, leading to more space for their offense to operate.
If the Sixers are serious about the playoffs this season, there’s plenty of room to improve after the All-Star break. Granted, a near-.500 record in the East will probably be enough to get them in…but if they’re serious about contending in the playoffs, they’ve got work to do.
Check out these five things the team needs to focus on in their final 26 games.
5. Play the Field for Trades in the Next Week
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While Carmelo Anthony may have dominated the trade rumor headlines for the past few months, plenty of player names will start flying in the coming days, especially with All-Star Weekend approaching.
At this point, all indications from the Sixers camp suggest that Andre Iguodala isn’t going anywhere, like it or not. And even though Elton Brand is having his best season in a Sixers uniform, the three years and $51 million left on his contract will dissuade any potential takers.
That said, the Sixers still have a few potential trade assets, most notably in the expiring $6 million contract of Jason Kapono and the two-year, $13 million deal of Andres Nocioni.
Kapono ranks dead last on the team with 4.9 minutes per game and a 2.1 PER, and typically, teams don’t like burning 10 percent of their cap space on someone like that. If the Sixers don’t want to take advantage of Kapono’s three-point proficiency—he’s shot 43.9 percent from downtown in his lifetime—perhaps a contender like the Chicago Bulls would be interested.
Nocioni hasn’t been spectacular for the Sixers by any means, but he’s provided a solid, veteran presence on a team mostly comprised of youngsters. If the Sixers feel confident in their wing rotation sans Nocioni, they should be exploring options to move him before the new CBA gets put into place this summer.
The Sixers likely won’t make a headline move in the next week, but they owe it to themselves and their fans to explore all possible options.
4. Develop the Young Studs and the Bench
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Beyond Elton Brand (31) and Nocioni (31), the Sixers’ core features almost exclusively 20-somethings, be it Andre Iguodala (27), Thaddeus Young (22), Jrue Holiday (20), Lou Williams (24), Jodie Meeks (23) or Evan Turner (22). That’s not even to mention third-year centers Marreese Speights (23) and Spencer Hawes (23), or rookie forward Craig Brackins (22).
Point being: The Sixers have no shortage of young players to build their team around. Think of them as the anti-Celtics.
Collins flirted with some questionable rotations in the beginning of the season—think Tony Battie earning regular rotation minutes—but once he inserted Meeks in the starting lineup, the rest of the rotation seemed to fall into place.
With Young, Williams and Turner off the bench, the Sixers recognize the strength they have in numbers.
“Any time you can have three players come off the bench and get in double figure (points) that’s big for us,” Young recently said. “That is one of the main things coach puts on the board for us before every game – the bench has to win the game for us. Our bench is one of the toughest in the league and we have to go out and prove it each and every night.”
If the Sixers hope to make noise this year and beyond, they’ll need to continue developing their younger players and recognize that without a Kobe Bryant-esque scorer on the the team, they’ll need major contributions from their reserves.
3. Allow Elton Brand to Continue His Resurgence
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As the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Kate Fagan masterfully covered in this past Sunday’s issue, this year’s version of Elton Brand has been nothing short of a revelation for Sixers fans.
After laboring through injuries, ineffectiveness and Eddie Jordan in the first two years of his five-year, $80 million contract, Brand’s been closer to the 20-10 player than any Sixer fan could have reasonably expected before the year started.
His 15.3-point, 8.6-rebound average has been the anchor for the Sixers this year, as they’ve been able to rely on Brand for similar output on a night-in, night-out basis.
More importantly, after hovering around the league average in PER during his first two years as a Sixer, he’s jumped to a 19.15 PER this year—the highest he’s averaged since the 2006-07 season.
Seeing as Brand turns 32 in less than a month’s time, it’s hard to fault Sixers fans for giving up much hope on him. Heck, Brand openly admitted to Fagan that he thought Jordan gave up on him last year.
Thankfully for Sixers fans, Brand kept believing in himself, and he’s now closer to the player the Sixers thought they were signing in 2008 than he’s ever been.
It’s critical for Doug Collins to keep Brand in the rhythm he’s been in all year, both for the Sixers’ playoff hopes this year and for any faint possibility of driving up Brand’s trade value in the long term.
2. Pray Evan Turner Keeps Refining His Jumper
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Fagan’s fantastic Sixers coverage hasn’t been limited to Elton Brand in the past week. In fact, she posted an encouraging post on Tuesday revolving all around Evan Turner’s jumpshot.
There’s no way to say this nicely: The rook hasn’t been living up to most Sixers’ fans expectations yet . (This author very much excluded, for the record.) And much of the disappointment stems from his underwhelming 7.2 point per game average, and even more so, his startling 40.5 percent shooting from the field.
Fagan, a former player for the University of Colorado, does a far more intricate job breaking down the fundamental flaws with Turner’s jumper than I could ever hope to do. Seriously, click the link above.
Long story short, Turner’s guide hand is on the wrong place on the ball, and he’s got a jerky motion every time he rises to shoot.
Thankfully, as Fagan notes, Turner’s well aware of the problem, and is even considering visiting a shot doctor in the summer to fix the fundamentals.
“My boy [Andres] Nocioni sat me down and said, ‘Every shot should be one motion, not broken into two parts,’ Turner told Fagan. “I just really try to focus on that, leave my follow thru up a little bit longer."
Sixers fans should hope that as Turner approaches the dreaded “rookie wall,” he’s continuing to put in work on his jumpshot every day until he finds more consistency in the motion.
1. Make Their Name on Defense and Physicality
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While Eddie Jordan came in before the 2009-10 season preaching nothing but the Princeton offense, it should have been an immediate red flag in Sixers’ fans mind. (How we all were so masterfully duped, I’ll never fully understand…)
The Sixers had the personnel for a fast-break, transition-oriented offense. With no true scoring presence down low, the last thing they needed was a convoluted, over-complicated offense to slow their halfcourt offense even more.
Coach Collins, on the other hand, came to town with the reputation of being a defensively minded coach. And oh, how sweet it’s been to see the Sixers actually rotating on defense.
From Fagan’s blog entry on Saturday about the hunt for .500:
“Last season, the Sixers had very little interest in closing the space on a rotation and an outside shooter. This year? The Sixers seem absolutely paranoid about closing out on shooters. And the intent of the rotation doesn’t seem only about challenging the shot, but actually making the shooter bring the ball down and take a dribble or make another pass.”
After ranking dead last in 3-point field goal percentage allowed (39.3) last year, they’re currently ranked 4th this season, allowing a paltry 33.5 percent shooting from downtown. And according to ESPN’s John Hollinger, they’re tied with Memphis for 9th in the league in defensive efficiency, one spot behind the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
If the Sixers have any hope of making it out of the first round of the playoffs this season, they’ll have to hang their hats on defense and pray for more slugfests like the 77-71 win against San Antonio that “set offensive basketball back about a decade or so,” as Spurs coach Gregg Popovich so masterfully put it.
