What’s going to 2024-25 Sixers be capable of depend upon?
What’s going to 2024-25 Sixers be capable of depend upon? initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Philadelphia
The 2024-25 Sixers will start coaching camp on Oct. 1 within the Bahamas.
As that date approaches, we’ll dive into a number of important subjects for the workforce in Nick Nurse’s second season as head coach.
First up: What’s going to the Sixers be capable of depend upon?
The Sixers are accustomed to unstable swings in fortune, Joel Embiid damage woes and severe roster shakeups. By means of all of it, they’ve been an excellent regular-season workforce because the 2017-18 marketing campaign at 347-208 total (62.5 profitable proportion).
It’s nonetheless felt at instances just like the Sixers can’t rely on a lot, particularly within the playoffs. For this yr, our pre-camp learn is that the next three areas must be comparatively dependable.
Prolific scoring by the celebrities
Joel Embiid averaged extra factors than minutes per recreation final common season. He scored 50 factors on 13-for-19 capturing within the Sixers’ Sport 3 playoff win over the Knicks. In Sport 5, Tyrese Maxey dropped 46. Paul George is now a part of a Sixers star trio.
Will the Sixers be able to working round some subpar outdoors capturing performances from their high gamers? George hasn’t drawn heaps of foul pictures lately and Maxey remains to be determining the nuances of when to actively search out contact and when to focus solely on ending inside. Nevertheless, Embiid’s foul drawing usually helps to mitigate slumps. He’s shot 11.7 free throws per recreation over the previous three seasons and the Sixers ranked third in free throw price final yr as a workforce, per Cleansing the Glass.
On most nights, the Sixers must be comfy leaning on their stars’ many offensive presents.
Protected decision-making
Whereas Nurse will encourage Maxey to play an even speedier, extra aggressive type, the 23-year-old is a habitually low-turnover participant. He dedicated over three turnovers in simply six video games final common season and his 6.6 turnover proportion was lowest amongst NBA level guards.
The Sixers had the NBA’s greatest turnover proportion outdoors of rubbish time within the 2023-24 season and none of their offseason pickups ought to damage them badly in that division.
Nurse additionally gained’t tolerate a ton of reckless, possession-squandering performs by non-star gamers. If Andre Drummond is throwing overly formidable backdoor passes or Eric Gordon’s having a surprisingly sloppy evening, there’s an honest likelihood Nurse will take into account different choices.
Position gamers with signature non-shooting expertise
This one’s a lot much less particular and quantifiable. Once more, we’ll return to the chilly capturing state of affairs. Even when no Sixer is having a fantastic capturing recreation, it’s truthful to imagine Drummond shall be an elite rebounder; Kyle Lowry shall be exceptionally clever and aggressive; Caleb Martin shall be versatile defensively and discover methods to chip in as a cutter, slasher and offensive rebounder.
The Sixers at all times want three-point capturing round their stars — Buddy Hield’s attraction final commerce deadline was apparent — however the workforce’s present solid of function gamers appears reliable for many greater than jumpers.
In a broad sense, that high quality could possibly be the distinction between an ample displaying in Embiid-less playoff minutes and a disastrous blown lead. That’ll be the hope, anyway.
