With retooled roster and Doc on bench, Sixers can contend again
The other way didn’t work. The personnel tricks failed. The patience wore off. The failures were real.
Trusting a management plot to win through losing was evil. A seven-year commitment to a coach was too long. The science wasn’t always worth being followed.
The opportunities arose but were wasted. The injuries, which happen, were plentiful. A burner social media routine was disruptive. A virus lent fresh perspective.
For all of those reasons, but none more than the fact that they have been on a vigil since 1983 to win a championship, the Sixers this year will be trying something new.
They will try to win with Doc Rivers, who was the best available coach on the market. They will try to figure it out with a respected, dedicated basketball-operations director, Daryl Morey. They will re-commit to their AllStars and near-All-Stars, and they will surround them with mid-tolate-career veterans, many of high achievement. They will employ decorated assistant coaches.
There will be no assembly line of would-be point guards. There will be a reliable backup center. There will be shooters. There will be depth. The Philly-to-Delaware express track will be less crowded.
The expectations will be sturdy. “I want people to know,” Rivers said, “that I am here to win.”
Similar boasts have been spread around Camden in recent years, from a formal departure from The Process to Brett Brown’s famous declaration just over a year ago that his team was ready to win the Eastern Conference. The difference this time is that, in so many areas, the Sixers are ready to back up their claims.
As it will be until he is employed elsewhere, and it is unlikely that he ever will be, any Sixers success will be built upon Joel Embiid. The most talented player, skill for skill, in franchise history, Embiid is no longer young, developing, coming off some horrific injury, unaware of the realities of the NBA, too heavy, too light or too unpredictable. He’s 26, about to enter his seventh NBA season (including two redshirt years) and will center a starting lineup of relatively high familiarity with Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons.
For Embiid to be at his best, however, he needed to be surrounded by proven shooters, as he was in the Sixers’ most encouraging recent season, 20172018. Then, he was cushioned by JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli, Robert Covington and Ersan Ilyasova. By last season, that approach was scrapped in favor of what Brown would call “smash mouth offense” and “bully ball defense,” a cockamamie approach to winning in the modern NBA.
Hired away from Houston for his reputation as a strong talent evaluator, Morey helped add career shooting experts Danny Green and Seth Curry to his top unit, then continued to hoard shooters through lower-level free agency and the draft.
Suddenly, the Sixers had what they were missing last year, yet had not been forced to crack
what they continue to believe is a strong foundation.
“Getting shooters open and getting good looks,” Harris said, “just opens the court up for everybody.”
If the Sixers are to thrive, it will be essential to mine the most out of Harris. Ever close to being an All-Star, yet just inconsistent enough to frustrate, Harris was having his best NBA season under Rivers with the Clippers before he was traded to the Sixers around the 2019 deadline. Often shuffled about the lineup last season, when the injection of Al Horford left the entire frontcourt dysfunctional, Harris should settle into a more consistent role as the primary four-man.
“When I have conversations with Doc, it’s about floor-spacing and being able to have those driving lanes,” Harris said. “Over the years, I have been able to use my quickness and speed to be about to get by ‘fours’ out there with space on the court. That’s a big thing for our team and our offense this year.”
With Green, Curry, Harris and Embiid all capable outside shooters,
Rivers plans to allow Simmons to do what he does best: Not shoot from beyond a sleevelength. Instead, Rivers will be satisfied with his point guard’s defensive rebounding, ability to push the ball, to find open teammates and to finish around the basket in pick-and-rolls with Embiid.
“When you put your two best players together in an action, it creates chaos,” Rivers said. “They are doing that and are starting to see little things they can get out of it.”
Rivers will trust his starting lineup, and will have more of a say than Brown did about when and how long it will be used. The Sixers will continue to adhere to some sports science, but Rivers will not let it guide every decision.
While comfortable with his new starting lineup, Rivers will be OK, too, using an entire fiveman second unit. With a lack of depth last season, Brown did not have that luxury.
The second group will be structured around Dwight Howard, the Hall of Fame-ready center last seen helping the Lakers
win a world championship. Shake Milton, the starting point guard at the end of last season, will be in that mix, with Furkan Korkmaz, Mike Scott and most likely Matisse Thybulle. First-round draft choice Tyrese Maxey had a strong training camp.
“I’m just looking for them to play well and to play together and play their own way when all five are on the floor,” Rivers said. “They are not going to be able to play the way Joel and Ben and that group will play, because they don’t have Joel and Ben on their team. So they’re going to have to play a little different.
“They are going to have to figure out what that identity looks like.”
The Sixers will have a new identity this season, even if the bulk of their regular lineup is familiar. They will run more, shoot better and be less likely to scratch Embiid.
“I owe the city a championship,” Embiid said. “It’s why I keep working so hard. I need to make it happen.”
The old ways never worked. The new one has a chance.