7 Questions Before The 76ers Tip Off The 2018-2019 Season
Aah, the NBA season is back. What a relief. From now until June, I know what I’ll be doing from 7 til 12 every night.
And what better time for an team preview than at the precipice of the season? Now I know that some bloggers here would suggest that mid-June would be a good time for an NBA preview, I’d argue that basketball season is a good time to talk about basketball season.
So without further ado, seven questions to start the Sixers season.
Is Markelle Fultz fixed?
Fixed is a stretch. As badly as I want it to be the case, I don’t know how vast of an improvement we’re going to see from Markelle Fultz. His shot is no doubt improved, which is a huge testament to Drew Hanlen’s work this summer, but it’s apparent that every shot comes with a ton of though, i.e. there’s nothing automatic about it. For Fultz to be a part of the Sixers starting lineup, he needs to be able to space the floor and be a catch and shoot option when Ben Simmons is playing point.
That said, Fultz’s value is more than just as a scorer. Even if he’s not putting up the numbers that the most optimistic Sixers fans are projecting, he’s still provide value as a pick and roll orchestrator, a creative passer, a willing rebounder, and the sneakily-most-fun part of his game, a shot blocker. Markelle has a big daddy wingspan and Brett Brown seems to have done a good job instilling some defensive desire into the former top pick, making his chase down blocks a must-see highlight.
So what is realistic? My highest hope, without blatantly Stanning for my home team like Greenie does, would be that he makes an average of one three pointer a game while finding a spot in lineups with Embiid and Simmons. Esoterically, the only thing that matters is that he gains confidence and we see that he can become a contributing factor on a championship contender. Otherwise, it starts to look like one of the worst trades of all time.
Despite whiffing in on adding a superstar, has the team improved?
You have to think that it has. We all tricked ourselves into believing that LeBron was a fraction of a possibility, which seems stupid as fuck in hindsight. A trade with the Spurs seemed within reach, but the prospect of dismantling the core combined with the Spurs lofty demands for compensation made that an impossibility.
Our personnel losses (Belinelli, Ilyasova, Luwawu-Cabarot, Anderson and a two-day-stint stint with Nemanja Bjelica) are essentially balanced out with their gains (Wilson Chandler, Mike Muscala, Landry Shamet and when he’s healthy, Zhaire Smith). Again the Sixers will rely on personal progression in their young core and hope that the chemistry building, which they’ve prioritized over cashing in assets for a superstar, has proven to further galvanize a young team.
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The Sixers best style of play is undoubtedly a well-spaced floor to draw gravity away from the lane-cloggers Simmons and Embiid. JJ Redick has already found how useful he can be in such a system. Can players like Saric, Covington and Fultz? Philadelphia’s ability to build on a 50-win season depends on it.
How has Ben Simmons game evolved?
Despite what the tee-shirt pushing fucksticks in Boston would have you believe, Ben Simmons ability to shoot three pointers does not have any bearing on the Sixers success this year. It doesn’t matter at all. The sentiment of would be the same as if I made a Tom Brady shirt that said “Catch A Pass You Coward.”
I am a million times more interested in Ben’s free throw shooting than his three point shooting. The fact that he lives inside the three point line should raise the importance of him getting to the free throw line exponentially. Last season he shot 56% from the line. If he can raise that to 70% or higher this year, it will buff out one of the only blemishes on the second-year man’s incredible complete game.
One of the interesting developments this year will be what Simmons role is for the stretches when Fultz becomes the ball dominant guard. Often he was relegated to the post in his lone season at LSU. That team was poorly constructed, miscoached and didn’t win a lot of games. Hopefully Brett Brown can do a better job navigating those waters.
Does EB have the chops to be an active GM?
It’s hard to believe the Bryan Colangelo saga took place just months ago. It’s even harder to believe how long it took for the Sixers to come up with a solution. The hardest thing to believe is that they settled on EB, who is not many months removed from being an active NBA player himself. That is not to say Brand will be bad. It’s just to say that I have no fucking clue what Brand is going to be like.
He’s obviously a smart dude, a basketball lifer, and is intimately familiar with the Sixers organization. But is he going to be able to go head-to-head with a Danny Ainge as far as talent-recognition? He clearly isn’t of the Daryl Morey, Sam Hinkie analytics world. And for the people that skew towards that preference, a Hinkie return or luring someone like Mike Zarren would have been a more alluring choice.
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It’s a blessing to be out from under the shadow of Bryan Coangelo’s collar, but we have to hope that Elton will show the right mix of temperance and a killer-instinct that it takes to be a great GM. Can he lock in our young talent to good deals? Will he be able to add a superstar should the opportunity present itself? We’ll soon know.
Can Joel Embiid emerge in MVP conversations?
With so many story lines braided into the offseason, it becomes easy to overlook the biggest problem on the Sixers. Embiid has been vocal about his goals this season. He wants to be in the MVP discussion. He was clearly hindered by the mask that he had to wear in the two rounds of the playoffs, as he constantly was trying to abandon it. Before that missed the last chunk of the NBA season as the Sixers soared without him. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the Sixers best player at his best.
This offseason, Markelle Fultz wasn’t the only one to work out with Drew Hanlen. Embiid put in the hours with the St. Louis-based trainer and their objective was stated over and again. They wanted Embiid work on his bully ball. To constantly punish opponents with Embiid’s generational combination of size and quickness. That, combined with their much-needed focus on conditioning, should make Embiid a true terror to the rest of the league.
I’d also love to see Embiid shoot more consistently from three, especially after his dip in percentage last year. His pull through and shot fake moves last season proved to be effective, but if Fultz can’t establish himself as a constant threat, the Sixers might need Embiid to draw the opposing center out of the paint and create some floor spacing.
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Who is the 5th starter? What is the rotation?
It depends on who you see as the 5th guy. The starters will be Embiid, Simmons, Covington, Saric and Fultz. To many, the question mark is Fultz, but if you are trying instill confidence, that’s a no brainer. Last year, Saric started on the bench, but lobbied his way into the starting lineup and the team improved because of it. That said, the lineup with which he thrived the most featured JJ Redick and not Fultz. Redick’s shooting and spacing are invaluable, so starter or not, he should see near starters minutes.
But where do we go from there. TJ McConnell saw the sixth most minutes on the team last year. After being relegated to the third string point guard, that will surely dip, but he was so integral to the Sixers success that it will be hard to keep him out of the lineup. Early on, Wilson Chandler seems to be a no-go for health reasons, so we will see some interesting auditions for rotation spots. Can Furkan Korkmaz prove to be a valuable enough scoring option that he can take the Marco Belinelli role? Or does rookie Landry Shamet have a hot enough hand and complete enough arsenal to earn that position?
The back up bigs provide situational relief for Embiid. Amir Johnson is there for his toughness and mistake-free defense and Muscala offers a modern balance with his shooting touch. Jonah Bolden doesn’t seem to be ready yet, but the hope is that Embiid is healthy enough that we don’t have to think too much about any of these names.
Where will the 76ers finish?
Realistically, I think a 52-win season, a two seed and a conference finals appearance would be a success. The team needs to show progress and prove that they can be a big dog in a now LeBron-less Eastern Conference. A coaching shakeup in Toronto should allow the Sixers to jump the Raptors. The Sixers are heavier at the top but not as complete as the Celtics. Boston, as of now, is the team to beat in the East.
The Sixers can try to chip away of that, and that journey begins tonight, with game one in Boston.