Philadelphia 76ers: Are they still trending in the right direction?

After a chaotic offseason, we explore whether the Philadelphia 76ers are still trending in the right direction heading into the 2019-20 NBA season

The Philadelphia 76ers have been one of the more miraculous recovery stories in the NBA. This back from the dead franchise has gone from winning 10 games to just falling short of the Eastern Conference Finals in back-to-back seasons, and it can pretty much all be attributed to the process.

Though a lot of people (Stephen A. Smith) despise tactics such as this and especially the one the Sixers ran, you can’t deny that it worked. This is far from the only method for rebuilding a team. Watch the Boston Celtics decision making and you’ll find that out quickly.

Regardless of your preferences, this is the path they elected to take. There have been numerous mistakes made throughout the process, mostly regarding draft selections. Having hit on Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, I can’t overlook some of the other choices they’ve made. Jahlil Okafor, Michael Carter-Williams, and of course Markelle Fultz.

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MCW obviously won the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award, but his career since that point has been…yikes. They’ve made other competent picks though, you see guys like Landry Shamet, Jonah Bolden, and Elfrid Peyton have all turned into at least role players in the league.

I’d be lying though to say they had drafted great over this period because the wait on Embiid combined with a couple of other blunders quickly dismiss that. Nevertheless, when Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons turn out to be the caliber of players that they are now, it really doesn’t matter at all.

You have two generational talents on the same team who are in their 20s and coming into prime age. Both of these guys have skillsets that could one day land them in the hall of fame barring consistency and longevity, and one of them doesn’t even have a jump shot?

This team obviously has a lot of potential, and we can’t exactly say that they’ve underachieved these last two years considering how quickly they arose and the competition they faced at the top. Embiid has still struggled to stay consistently healthy throughout the playoffs, Ben needs to shoot, oh and the Toronto Raptors were a thing.

The 76ers went from 0 to 100 in basically one season, so of course, it’s far too early to call them any sort of failure. They should have 5-10 years of competitiveness in front of them assuming both Ben and Joel are retained that long.

Are they trending in the right direction, though? This offseason has been a bit questionable, to say the least. I know they couldn’t force Jimmy Butler to stay, but I objectively think that he was needed. When your most ball-dominant hasn’t even shot 10 3’s in the NBA yet, and never takes anyone off the dribble to hit a mid-range, he can’t exactly be considered a “get me a bucket” type guy.

Yes, I’ll wait on points to be made about Ben being one of the best penetrators in the league and how he can easily get inside and score. Everyone knows that of course, but the point of having a guy who can just get you a bucket is not to have a guy who’s great at one thing, but to have one who doesn’t care. Someone who can legitimately make a bad shot, a deep three, a fadeaway, whatever it may be. Jimmy Butler was that guy, just re-watch the Raptors series.

Lose a guy like that, and replace him with…? Josh Richardson? Al Horford? J-Rich can shoot effectively when his usage isn’t that high, but he isn’t like Jimmy Buckets in the slightest. He’s great compensation if you have to lose JB, but still, we know what he is and what he isn’t. Al Horford has a fan base entirely to himself in the NBA, and probably rightfully so. He’s been a consistently great defender and pretty much just an all-around player who can do everything from both the 5 or 4 spots.

That’s great and all, but he’s 33. He also will be playing in a lineup with Jojo, Tobias, and Ben Simmons. Spacing, anyone? Of course, Joel can hit 3’s, of course, Al can too, they’re multidimensional bigs. But trust me, we don’t want Al Horford camped out in the corner, and I definitely don’t want to see Joel reduced to that.

Tobias Harris is a power forward to me. He can get his own shot and navigate competently like a wing yes, but putting him at the 3 next to two basically centers seems a bit like stuffing him in there. Obviously, there will be lineup switching that happens, and Al will play a lot of minutes at the 5 by himself too. They may even think of him as an insurance policy for when and if Embiid gets injured. Regardless of all the positives here, I just see one thing prominently and that’s a lack of great or even good shooting.

They picked up guys like Raul Neto and Trey Burke, and Mike Scott can shoot, so can Tobias, but none of these are high usage pieces aside from Harris. There’s some intriguing young depth at the guard spots between Shake Milton, Zhaire Smith, and Matisse Thybulle, but we just don’t know how these guys will pan out yet. If Brett Brown can somehow manage to unlock the good Trey Burke consistently, then they might have some real bench offense and shooting. That though has obviously proven to be a big task considering Burke’s well-traveled history.

This roster has promise and upside, specifically because of the two biggest names and a couple very proficient sidekicks. If you’ve followed any bit of offseason news, you’ll know and may have seen Ben Simmons shooting some actual jump shots in scrimmages. Having watched him miss multiple threes on a rough shot in shootaround before, what we’ve seen most recently looks very promising.

The form isn’t Klay Thompson, but it didn’t look like Lonzo Ball either. All of this is speculation at this point, and it remains to be seen if he’ll utilize this new skill much during the season.

Nonetheless, it would be a very encouraging and welcomed sight for not only Sixers fans but all of us NBA fans in general, because who doesn’t enjoy watching a great player get better? If Simmons adds a jumper to his game, it might just be over. I don’t expect this team to win the finals this year, and it’s probably unlikely they even get there.

I’d love to be wrong and watch them take the next step, but if they don’t I wouldn’t have a panic attack. Time is on their side and you should expect them to remain in the mix for title contention very soon.