Fresh off a massive offseason, the Philadelphia 76ers have nearly rebuilt their roster with new additions including LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. The spotlight is now on this team as never before, with media scrutiny intensifying. The Liberty Ballers crew weighs in on key questions in this three-part series.
For Part 3, we’re focusing on team construction and depth. From navigating Embiid’s role in a pace-and-space offense to addressing potential weak spots, here’s our crew’s take:
Joel Embiid is still skilled but doesn’t move as quickly as he used to. The rest of the starting five leads the league in transition baskets. How do you expect the group to mesh with this mismatch?
Bryan Toporek:
I’m genuinely curious about this, because other than Embiid, the rest of the roster is designed to fly up and down the court. They’ll presumably look to push the pace off any missed basket, but if they can’t score in transition, they’ll slow it down and work Embiid into some half-court actions. Embiid needs to get himself into tip-top shape heading into this season, though.
Sean Kennedy: I think it will work just fine. Joel will concentrate on boxing out and then throwing kick-ahead passes to the other guys in transition. They will streak ahead and if an opportunity doesn’t develop organically, Embiid will saunter into position around the nail or top of the key to run a pick-and-roll or dribble handoff with 16-to-18 seconds still left on the shot clock.
Josh Grieb: I’m not concerned about this at all really. After drafting VJ Edgecombe, the Sixers made it a point to play fast and get out in transition as much as possible last season as well. With the speed in the backcourt and the amount of turnovers they created, they were able to get the ball and run down the floor without Embiid really ever having to.
The only time this pace got disrupted was during Embiid’s prolonged stretches of availability, and the offense would slow down because he was scoring like his old self again, which was just as viable a path to winning games.
The Sixers’ backcourt will likely be hunting a lot of turnovers again, and Embiid will likely miss a good chunk of games again. Even when he’s on the floor, I don’t think the Sixers will have much of a problem getting transition baskets.
Drew Peltzman: I believe we will be seeing Embiid at the half-court line for transition buckets, which is fine as long as he is the defensive anchor and rebounder the team will need him to be. If that is not the case, then big man better start running because it will be a track meet around him, and fans will quickly notice if he is literally too slow for this new roster. This may not become prevalent until the playoffs where the attrition sets in, but shooting more trail threes from all over the arc at a good clip could be the biggest change to ingratiate himself in the new offense. Late-career Embiid should embrace becoming a souped up Brook Lopez V2, it is exactly what the team needs.
Harrison Grimm: This is a very real question, but I do think people are overthinking it a bit. Embiid’s been playing in the trailer position pretty much all of his career, and that’s exactly what he’ll do here. Rebounding will be the biggest area to watch. On one hand, he’ll need to protect himself and his body accordingly, but on the other, he’ll need to grab boards and find one of several ball handlers to kick out to and run. I think it can not only work, but work well. Embiid’s favorite spot to shoot from the perimeter is a straight-on three, and he can walk into those with drives and kicks from any of the big name players.
If you divided the starting five into two hypothetical units, which lineup combinations would you want to see featured?
BT: This is an impossible question. Well done!
It’s impossible because there are so many different combinations that could work well together. My initial instinct would be to stagger Maxey and LeBron so the Sixers have a high-level playmaker on the floor at all times, but Maxey and LeBron should also be a deadly pairing together (not to mention the chemistry they’ve already established as offseason workout partners). I would at least keep Maxey and Embiid paired due to Maxey’s shooting ability.
If the Sixers do run out lineups without Maxey, Embiid and LeBron, that means Edgecombe and Brown would have a chance to run the offense on their own for a bit. I’d want Anfernee Simons with that duo to add some shooting, but I do want to see Point VJ at times this year given the playmaking chops he showed as a rookie.
SK: I like the idea of the vet duo of LeBron and Embiid building off their Team USA chemistry and running pick-and-rolls with spot-up shooters off the bench like Anfernee Simons and Dean Wade. I’m sure James could find Joel with some really sweet pocket passes. Then, the other group of Maxey, VJ and Jaylen could be assigned to hound opposing teams on the perimeter and run, run, run as much as possible.
JG: My initial temptation is to group Maxey, Embiid and LeBron together with Brown and Edgecombe as certified dawgs leading the second unit. My concern with that is it shifts nearly all of the passing ability to the first unit.
I think the pairing that might work best is LeBron, Maxey and Edgecombe with Embiid and Brown leading the other group. The two guards can be cutting and screening all over the floor while LeBron runs the show. The other group can pound teams to death with an Embiid/Brown pick-and-roll. Availability will surely determine how Nick Nurse staggers this bunch, but in a perfect world, I think that’s how I’d do it.
DP: I believe you can rotate three different combinations of the starting five throughout the whole game. This would be my ideal playoff rotation: Maxey/VJ/Brown as the remaining starters when the bench comes on. Likely Wade and Bona/Hukporti as the forward and center subs first to get the old guys off the floor. You could run all day and have strong interior defense and rebounding against the opponents bench unit. This would be the time for Edgecombe to eat, and help take the load off Maxey and Brown if necessary.
Then, those three starters exit for LeBron/Embiid/Simons/KCP, Wade stays on with this group. This is a slow and steady group but provides Embiid and LeBron the opportunity to cook with more space and proven role players in Simons, Wade and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Then you bring Brown on for Wade, let him cook with LeBron’s playmaking and Embiid’s gravity helping to distract the defense. Then you bring back Maxey and VJ for a long stretch, and repeat this again in the second half. I would try to avoid LeBron playing with the backup centers as much as possible, if possible.
HG: This isn’t an easy question to answer, which speaks volumes to the talent the Sixers have at their disposal. There’s going to be no shortage of staggering, but if we’re honing in on two specific groups, I’d like to see the first group be something like Maxey, KCP, LeBron, Wade and one of Bona or Hukporti. I think this group could play fast and have no shortage of shooting without sacrificing anything defensively. A big part of surviving when Embiid is off the floor is making do with Hukporti and/or Bona, and to do that, the bulk of their minutes should come alongside LeBron, who can spoon-feed them at the rim.
The other group would be something like Anfernee Simons, VJ Edgecombe, Brown, Barlow and Embiid. This would allow VJ to have plenty of on-ball reps, and this is a good group to compensate for Simons’ defensive problems. You could run plenty of pick-and-rolls with VJ and Brown with Embiid, and Embiid did a good job dishing to Barlow when posted up under the basket. Shooting could potentially be a problem with this group, but you could always swap out Barlow for Wade to provide that floor spacing.
The backup center spot has long been a topic of discussion, and it remains one this season. Are Bona and Hukporti enough to get by if Embiid misses time?
BT: This is easily my biggest area of concern heading into the season.
Can Bona and Hukporti fill in as spot starters at times? Probably. But if Embiid misses significant time, color me skeptical.
The Sixers can always try small-ball units with Barlow or even LeBron at the 5, but they’d be sacrificing a ton of rebounding and rim protection. Those lineups are fine as curveballs, not as something to be routinely relied upon.
I’m guessing that they’ll fill their last two-way spot with another big man just to give themselves more depth at that spot, and their final open roster spot is likely earmarked for a big man in-season as well.
SK: I think those two are enough in the sense that the team has enough talent elsewhere to get by with one position of weakness if and when Joel is out of the lineup for a few games here and there. You’re obviously not going to get a playoff-caliber center option on a minimum deal, so you have to hope the ability to load manage Embiid and take more off his plate with the massive infusion of roster talent can keep him on track to be relatively healthy come the postseason. I would like some sort of stretch-shooting big just to give Nick Nurse another lineup alternative – Kevin Love as a midseason signing, anyone?
JG: This is my second biggest concern, because as it stands, I don’t believe they’re enough to get by a substantial amount of time, especially to win a playoff game or two. Bona’s sophomore season was very up-and-down, and he looked woefully unplayable for large stretches of both playoff series for the Sixers last season.
Hukporti has gotten less opportunity. There’s perhaps a little more hope for development, but a lack of experience isn’t going to help him cut down on fouling immediately. Should Embiid miss a playoff game, I’d be very concerned about the other team being able to use all 12 of Bona and Hukporti’s fouls.
They won’t be able to do anything until halfway through the season, but I will be monitoring the veteran’s minimum and buyout big market closely.
DP: I strongly doubt it will be enough, but I am excited to see what Hukporti can bring to the table. If there’s any trade deadline targets the Sixers go after, I’d imagine it would be a center.
HG: I haven’t sold off my Bona stock yet, but I’m going to need to see much more of him this season. I think Bona and Hukporti are extremely similar in the sense that you want them doing less to provide more. These guys are big frames who play seriously hard, and when you overextend them, things can get wild and they can rack up fouls quick. You want them filling in the gaps, not doing the heavy lifting. I might be in the minority on this one, but those two might be enough if LeBron is mostly available. I do think you can run into problems quickly, however, if LeBron misses a chunk of time or you need to lean on both of them to soak up 48 minutes at the center spot in the event of an Embiid injury.
