Something that I was not expecting to see this year after all the Harden drama was Philadelphia playing maybe the best basketball of the Embiid era to this point. The offense is firing, the defense is stout and Philly was a cunt hair away from being 8-0 after a narrow loss to Milwaukee in their first game.
I’m not an expert on all things basketball, but I have been tuning in to Philly games and have noticed a few things that really stand out.
#1. Points In The Paint
We’re operating with a small sample size so far, so a lot of these numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt. That said, I don’t believe it’s a fluke that Philly’s points in the paint are up 8% from last year. In 22-23 the Sixers got 46.8% of their points in the paint, this year they are up to 54.8%. We have seen an equal decline in their points off of the three ball as well.
All of the Philly ball handlers seem to making aggressive drives getting to the rim. Oubre, Harris and Maxey are not shy to attack the basket when the defense allows them to. Which is a perfect segway into my next point.
#2. Tobias Harris Glow-Up
Tobias Harris is playing great basketball so far this season. The main area of notice for me is that Harris’ catch and shoot numbers are down significantly from last year. In 22-23, 35.6% of his shots were catch and shoot, this year, that number is down to 24.2%. He’s also averaging about 1.2 more dribbles per shot attempt as well.
Harris has rediscovered his abilities as a shot creator and it has allowed him to have a much larger impact on the floor. We’re seeing him beat guys off the dribble, score in the post and still maintain his 3 ball, especially in the right corner.
#3. Maxey-Embiid Two-Man Action
Watching what these two guys are doing together reminds me a lot of what Jokic and Murray were doing in the playoffs last year. This version of Maxey is what Philly thought they were getting when they acquired Harden.
The pick n rolls are obviously a bitch and a half to defend, but there’s a deeper level of chemistry with these two this season. Maxey at times is able to get a free lane to the hoop just because of Embiid’s gravity and Embiid can take advantage of the open floor when Maxey is knocking down his threes and stretching the defense.
#Conclusion
The Sixers look great so far and it’s been a joy to watch as a fan of basketball. The moral of the story is get the toxic people out of your life and get your medicine from Nurse and not a Doc.
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We ignoring the cunt hair thing?
TLDR - Harden is gone
Nice writeup, also post to the nba discussion sub for better conversation.
Glad to see 76ers figuring it out right now. Embiid needs a ring for the process to succeed
The moment you get rid of a terrible coach in Doc rovers and trade away a ball dominant guard in harden the team starts to look better. What I love about the new sixers rn is the maxey embidd duo working well along with the team is playing more as a unit than rathe rlast year where the offence was running through harden and EMBIID. Now that harden is gone the sixers have done well incorporating maxey more as the main ball handler but not to mention it’s freeing more space for other players
TL; DR - Nick Nurse
Nick nurse fixed this team beyond belief the best sixers squad I’ve seen in a decade
Tobias becomes so much more efficient than his previous self
I think mostly it has to do with adding a good coach and getting rid of the stink and stench of Ben Simmons and James Harden. I wouldn’t be surprised if they win the East.
Brett Brown was a terrible coach and Doc Rivers was somehow worse. That’s why.
Less Harden
Boom condensed your whole thing down to 2 words
Harris rediscovered?? Its all about FGAs… I bet Harris or MPJ in Denver would want those 25 FGAs of Poole in Washington.
Just need to shoot more 3s. Fifth lowest in the nba right now.
Bench is finally starting to score more. Although the starters are still scoring 85.7% of the total points.
Find it really odd that people think the sixers have a ton of depth. The sixers have being extremely healthy in the first 8 games. I think the scoring can go down significantly if either Maxey or Embiid goes down for any period of time. And if both are out, sixers don’t have someone like Shake from last year, who although very ball dominant, can score a lot when required.
Still think the sixers could have a rough stretch where they lose a bunch of games, but given that they have 7 new players in their 15 man lineup and a new coach with a new system, I would hope they’re a much better team towards Spring, where it gets really tough. Even if they don’t make a trade.
The Sixers’ issues have not been (with Embiid) regular season success. Individually for Joel or as a team.
Now that Embiid does have an MVP, it’s a Finals-or-bust franchise. I can’t quite say title-or-bust team like BOS or MIL or LAL or PHX or GS. As Philly’s best player has never made a Finals.
But, I’m just saying we need to see Philly get it done when it matters. Not make “fix themselves” posts in early November after beating the fucking Pistons.
Lol Sixers played 8 games, we’ll see how they fare later on, it’s a long season. It’s a great start got sure but let’s hold our horses on them fixing themselves. Maybe they are, but time will tell. Similarly like people were saying Celtics have the best starting lineup in 21st century/history after a hot start and then that faded ahahah
Tottenham Hotspurs had an amazing start of the season in Premier League, haven’t lost a single game out of first 10 (and their season is 38 games after which you win a title, no playoffs). Hype was strong, everyone was explaining what is the thing that the new coach brought in. Like Clippers they lost one of their best player (Harry Kane, who similarly hasn’t won shit but individual trophies like Harden, he did a KD though and joined a team that always wins in Germany) and brought in several hustle dudes. Then now, they lost 2 in a row to 2 bottom table teams and could be 4th after this weekend. And suddenly it looks like same old Tottenham, but a week ago Tottenham was fixed.
Give Maxey the ball more = Good things