Pistons Host the Barely Watchable 76ers
By J.M. Poulard
Essentials
- Teams: Philadelphia 76ers (8-31) at Detroit Pistons (15-25)
- Date: January 17
- Time: 7:30 p.m.
- Television: FSD
Get in the Game
The Detroit Pistons host a Philadelphia 76ers team tonight that may or may not be an NBA team.
I say this jokingly, but there are times when Philly gives fans pause on that very matter. The Sixers’ roster is littered with names that even Philadelphia fans will have a hard time recognizing.
Sure, Michael Carter-Williams and Nerlens Noel are known on some level, but the remaining players could all be featured on Inside the NBA’s infamous “Who He Play For?” game, where Charles Barkley is required to guess which team a mentioned player is part of.
To be fair, K.J. McDaniels and Tony Wroten probably earn some recognition as Sixers players, as a result of appearances in league top-10 montages. The tandem produces highlights on a team that dwells at the bottom of the league’s standings.
It’s not at all surprising that Philadelphia is this bad given that it’s actively tanking games in an effort to acquire a stud first-round pick. Whether the plan works out is up in the air, but the Sixers are going all out with its execution.
The front office has built a team featuring borderline NBA players, and it’s a travesty to be quite frank. It’s one thing for a club to be populated with odd fits in terms of talent, but it’s another issue altogether when a unit purposely acquires subpar players and forms a team with it.
Welcome to Philadelphia.
The 76ers have some intriguing athletes that combine for at least one jaw-dropping play per game, and even then, it’s hard on the eyes. Philly is by far the worst offensive team in basketball largely due to roster makeup.
A few ball-handlers here, a couple of big men there and that’s the team. No designated knockdown shooters or good ball movers (players interested in keeping ball moving to open player).
The 76ers’ offense is a bit of an NBA social experiment when one accounts for the ways opponents defend it. Philadelphia is so poorly constructed that defenses spend a large amount of time ignoring the 76ers’ players on the perimeter.
Indeed, defenders concede open shots, go underneath on pick-and-rolls and even fail to rotate out to shooters because they expect field-goal attempts to clank off the rim. At times, opponents look lost defensively because they don’t put in the required effort to find the ball and keep it out of the paint.
The worse part of it all?
Philadelphia might still miss.
The Sixers are the only team in basketball making less than 30 percent of their treys, and they are dead last in overall field-goal percentage.
Don’t get me wrong, there a nights where the open looks will go in, which can be good enough to produce a double-digit margin of victory against a New Orleans Pelicans squad sans Anthony Davis. But for the most part, Philly simply doesn’t make enough shots to keep defenses honest.
What’s more, the 76ers lack veteran leadership given the influx of young players on the team (everyone is 26 years old or younger, save for Luc Mbah Moute who is 28). That youth makes it tough for players to pick up on opponent tendencies and make subtle adjustments. Also, no one ever truly appears to be in sync with the movements of teammates, which leads to repeated mistakes.
In all seriousness, fans and media members should tip their hats to head coach Brett Brown for managing to coax eight wins from this team so far this season. Perhaps the tanking will eventually yield great results, but there is no light at the end of that tunnel so far.
Read about the 76ers