It hasn’t always been pretty, but nearly two weeks into the season, the Sixers have the best record in the Eastern Conference at 7-1. They’ve already toppled three other East title hopefuls in the New York Knicks (twice!), Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers, although the Pacers were without both Tyrese Haliburton (hamstring) and Ivica Zubac (ankle), which takes some of the shine off that win.
There’s still plenty of meat left on the bone for the Sixers, who are nowhere close to a finished product
yet. But they easily could have been below .500 right now, which would have inevitably led to questions about Nick Nurse’s job security and whether they would be the next would-be superteam that went up in smoke.
Given the scope of the Sixers’ roster changes this past offseason, plenty of people had plenty of questions about them coming into the year. Some of them have proven valid. Others looked hilariously off base in real time and have proven to be exactly that. (The local media has a far better batting percentage than the national media in that regard.)
Let’s go through which offseason Sixers takes are aging like spoiled milk and which are proving to be hauntingly prescient.
Which narratives were wrong
‘There’s only one ball’
What do you get when you combine two former MVPs, four former All-NBA selections and a high-upside, second-year high-lottery pick in your starting lineup? Would they form a cohesive unit, or would they devolve into the “your-turn, my-turn” style of play that’s common when stars link up?
The offense is still very much a work in progress, especially in the half court, but sharing the ball has not been a problem thus far. The Sixers are just outside of the top 10 leaguewide in total passes made per game, and all four of LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Jaylen Brown are averaging at least four assists per game.
As it turns out, putting together a team of extremely talented, high-IQ basketball players is actually a good idea. Who knew?
They won’t play defense
Given their collection of high-end talent, the Sixers figured to be elite offensively. One of the main questions about them coming into the season was what they’d look like on the other end of the floor.
Hilariously, they’ve been far better on defense than on offense thus far.
With the usual small-sample-size caveat at this time of year, the Sixers currently have the NBA’s third-best defensive rating. When they aren’t turning the ball over and allowing easy runouts, they’ve shown far more cohesion in half-court settings than expected this early in the year.
After the season-opening win over the Knicks, Embiid told reporters that he’s hoping to earn an All-Defense nod this season, because playing defense at that level “changes everything” for our team. Brown said “defense is what we’re going to have to continue to hang our hat on,” and it’s “non-negotiable.”
The Sixers figured to have a high defensive ceiling in the playoffs once they were exerting maximum effort and had individually tailored, opponent-specific game plans. The regular season was the bigger question. So far, they’re acing that test.
Who’s the alpha?
Joe Vardon of The Athletic asked that question to Brown on media day—and promptly got shut down—but he was hardly the only one who was curious about that. After all, the Sixers were importing two strong personalities into their core, both of whom have been the best player on their respective teams before.
After the first two weeks, there’s little question who the Sixers’ alpha is, though. It’s Tyrese Maxey.
Because the Sixers’ starting five is so stacked, the have the luxury of mismatch-hunting whenever one of their starters has a clear matchup advantage. But against the Pacers last Wednesday, the Sixers’ entire late-game offense effectively boiled down to “Tyrese, make something happen.” The same goes for their shorthanded win over the Charlotte Hornets on Halloween, when Maxey erupted for a season-high 38 points.
Back in training camp, Brown talked about how Maxey took it upon himself to welcome the newcomers and help them acclimate. He’s clearly taken the leadership mantle upon himself both on and off the floor, and the rest of the Sixers appear content to let him roll with it.
With that said, should we start a nightly Alpha Tracker just in case?
VJ’s development will be stunted
Shout-out to Draymond Green for this galaxy-brained take.
“If I’m VJ Edgecombe’s agent, I’m not sure I’m happy with the summer that the 76ers have had,” Green said on his podcast this offseason. “If I’m just VJ Edgecombe’s agent, because this could affect a lot for VJ Edgecombe. Like you go from being sometimes the second option when Embiid was out to sometimes being the fifth option. It’s a big, big, big difference. I don’t know if y’all understand how big of a difference that is.”
Edgecombe’s production has dipped relative to his rookie year—he’s averaging only 12.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game thus far—but that hardly means his development is being stunted by his new superstar teammates. Look no further than his 17-point, 13-rebound game against the Milwaukee Bucks or his 11-point, seven-rebound, six-assist outing against the Cavaliers.
Edgecombe might not put up monster stats this year, but his willingness to play whatever role the Sixers ask of him and play it well should only further endear him to his teammates and coaching staff. That’s the type of player who you want—and should pay to have—in your locker room.
Which narratives were right
Backup center
Even before Ariel Hukporti went down with a torn Achilles in the Sixers’ preseason opener, backup center looked like a potential weak spot. Now, it’s arguably their biggest issue, particularly given Embiid’s injury history and ongoing load management.
Adem Bona has largely been invisible to start the year other than the one game that Embiid missed against Detroit. Tacko Fall (hip) and Dominick Barlow (back) have yet to play, while Jabari Walker (knee) missed two games. That’s left them relying on LeBron and Dean Wade as small-ball 5s at times, which is not a sustainable solution.
As Maxey astutely noted after the Pistons loss, “It would be great to get some of our tall guys to come back.” External reinforcements do not appear to be on the way, at least for another month, which means they’ll have to look inside for ways to solve this problem for now.
Rebounding
The Sixers have largely been a dismal rebounding team under Nick Nurse. That didn’t figure to change this year given their personnel, and through five games, those concerns have played out as expected.
While the small-sample-size caveat very much applies at this time of year, the Sixers are currently 24th in rebounding percentage. They were 22nd in 2023-24 and 21st last season, so their early-season output is right in line with how they’ve fared in recent seasons (at least ones when their entire roster doesn’t get injured).
With Andre Drummond now in New York and Hukporti out for the year, the backup center situation plays into these struggles to some extent. However, this is a teamwide issue that they need to improve upon.
“We’ve got to be better at rebounding the basketball, and we have to do it by committee,” head coach Nick Nurse recently told reporters. “I mean, I think if you’re missing some of your size and all that kind of stuff, obviously it becomes a problem. And, all five guys have to rebound. I just look at the numbers there, and the defensive rebounding from just across the board, no matter the position, just hasn’t been good enough.
“So, everybody’s got to chip in with a few more. That has to be the answer.”
Long-range shooting
Maxey is the only plus three-point shooter in the Sixers’ starting lineup. They have Anfernee Simons and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope as snipers off their bench, but long-range shooting always figured to be an issue for this group. Lo and behold, the Sixers are 24th in three-point makes, 26th in three-point attempts and 18th in three-point percentage.
They’re due for some positive regression to the mean in the coming weeks. Maxey is shooting only 33.9 percent from deep, which would be the third-worst mark of his career. He figures to bounce back up into the high 30s (if not the 40s) in due time. After all, Simons started 5-of-21 from distance over his first four games and then went on a three-games heater, going 16-of-27 from deep. He’s now over 40% on the season on high volume.
With that said, Brown is shooting 41.9 percent from deep, which would be his career high if he keeps shooting that well across this entire season. In other words, he’s due for negative regression moving forward.
The bigger-picture bottom line: Unless Embiid and/or Edgecombe become more reliable from three, this issue might plague their starting five all year.
The half-court offense… for now
Given their compilation of talent, the Sixers figure to have one of the league’s most lethal offenses this year. However, the players have spent the past month warning that it’ll be a work in progress early in the season given how many new pieces they’re incorporating.
As it turns out, they weren’t kidding. The Sixers are 19th in overall offensive rating and 20th in half-court offense.
That’s bound to normalize as the starters develop more chemistry with one another. It’s hard to imagine this group finishing in the bottom 10 of the NBA in half-court offensive efficiency. Until then, they at least need to cut down on their turnovers to avoid generating run-out opportunities for opponents.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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