5. Philadelphia is not a true contender
I would imagine being a Philadelphia 76ers fan this millennium has been like shopping on a dodgy International website: You get your hopes up and think it’s worth the risk, but it always ends in disappointment.
Since their 2000-01 season run to the NBA Finals, the 76ers have endured five first-round exits from the playoffs, four dismissals from the East Conference Semifinals and eight years of extended holiday time after missing the postseason completely.
The heartbreaking Kawhi Leonard dagger in last season Eastern Semifinals loss to the Raptors summed up their past 20 years fairly well. Watching Joel Embiid in tears as he walked down the tunnel made me feel really sorry for Philadelphia, so much promise for a season gone to waste again.
This season was predicted to be different.
No more Kawhi in the East, four of their five starters aged 27 or under providing a good young core, ‘superstar’ caliber players in Embiid and Ben Simmons, it basically seemed like a free shot at the Eastern Conference title with nobody really on their level.
Philadelphia is 14-6 sitting in 5th place in the East and you may think that’s actually a good start to the season and that I am barking up the wrong tree.
But hold everything and let me explain.
First of all, they were 5-0 to start the season which means they have gone 9-6 since then which is not fantastic. The stretch has included losses against sub-.500 teams including Orlando and Oklahoma City, also not fantastic.
In fact, they have had the 10th easiest schedule of all 30 teams in the NBA so far and have fallen to 14-6. Indiana is the only team in the top 6 places on the Eastern Conference to have had an easier start to the season.
The 76ers are yet to win a road game against a team with a .500-plus record, dropping all four of these games so far against the likes of Toronto and Utah. They have chalked up four wins against .500-plus teams but all have been at home, with one being against the Boston Celtics in their opening game of the season.
They rank 18th in the league with an average of 108.3 points-per-game, only two teams with a .500-plus record ranking lower than this (Nuggets + Jazz) which proves they are simply struggling to put points on the board. They have also scored under 100 points on five occasions and over 120 points just once this season. Compare this to the Milwaukee Bucks who are yet to score under 100 points in a game and have scored over 120 on 10 different occasions, showing the 76ers have serious offensive issues.
As an Australian, this next part hurts a little, but here it goes.
Ben Simmons is currently overrated and there are no two ways about it. Yes, he is certainly talented. Yes, he definitely has the potential to be a superstar.
But he still can’t shoot. That is a big issue.
The Australian media was flooded with all-angle looks at Ben Simmons’ first-ever 3-pointer for an entire week, making out as he had just hit a buzzer-beater to win the NBA Finals in Game 7. But for a player on a maximum contract, hitting one 3-pointer should not be that big of a deal.
If the 76ers are to fix their offensive struggles as the season wears on, then they cannot afford to have their starting point-guard averaging just 12 points-per-game. Particularly with the loss of Jimmy Butler over the off-season, Philadelphia needs more consistent scorers to help Embiid and Tobias Harris carry the offensive load.
You would forgive Simmons for still being young and developing, but he is now in his third season and has not shown any signs of improvement from when he first entered the league.
If the 76ers want to be true contenders then they need to sort out their offensive game-plans and for goodness sake, someone teaches Simmons to shoot. At this stage, I don’t see them competing with the likes of the Bucks, Celtics, and Raptors so something needs to change for Philadelphia.