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It has been an up-and-down start to the season for the Philadelphia 76ers. They sit at 7-7 on the year despite Joel Embiid already missing four games, James Harden being out for an extended period of time amid his right foot tendon sprain, and the same concerns surrounding Doc Rivers showing face. The strong play of Embiid has kept the Sixers afloat amid the uncertainty but Coach Rivers still has not been satisfied with the team’s overall play.
When speaking to the media at Wednesday’s practice Rivers was asked about what areas still need improvement. As the veteran head coach stated, “We haven’t been efficient for the most part, up and down all year. We’ve had efficient stretches. It’s a work in progress. [With] limited guard play, we know it’s gonna be a sloppy, slower game right now and you’ve gotta go into the mode of winning and keeping it to where you need it…We still wanna work on our efficiency ‘cause that’s the key,” per Sam DiGiovanni of ClutchPoints.
What’s Wrong With the Efficiency?
Through the first 14 games of the season, the Sixers currently rank 17th in offensive efficiency. They also are scoring just 108.5 points per game which ranks 28th in the NBA and rank 14th in overall team shooting percentage.
Rivers also gave some insight into why this efficiency could be the case. As he stated, “The pace has been really slow and that’s fine by us. We’ll do that. We don’t mind that. Getting stops, we still wanna run. We emphasize it, we still wanna get out and get into our pace. But there are gonna be nights, coincidental nights where you have three or four games that are low-scoring. If you win the games, you’re happy with it. If you don’t, you’re not. I don’t look at points as much as I look at efficiency. If you’re pretty efficient, that’s all you can be, whether you’re going fast or not,” per Sam DiGiovanni of ClutchPoints.
With Harden and Embiid as the two ball-dominant figures within the offense, the Sixers likely will never be leading the pack for pace. However, picking up the pace and creating more fastbreak opportunities could be crucial to curing the efficiency issues.
Sixers Transition Struggles
The Sixers have seen some improvement in their transition play since the poor start to the season, but still have a ways to go. They currently rank 17th in the NBA by tallying 1.37 fastbreak points per game. They also rank 25th in fastbreak efficiency by producing just 1.61 points per transition opportunity.
Tyrese Maxey has played a significant role in this as his electrifying pace especially stands out on an otherwise slow 76ers roster. Maxey ranks in the 98th percentile for transition production so far this season. He is producing 1.69 points per possession in these opportunities with an 82.9% effective field goal percentage. However, he is getting these opportunities at a lesser volume compared to other players in this tier as these opportunities are occurring at just a 16.1% frequency. The 22-year-old also cannot be responsible for carrying this load in this area alone if the team is to have success.
The Sixers have done an excellent job improving their transition defense. This issue plagued them early on in the season and was a massive reason for their slow start. However, they must have a similar type of effort to improve the offense and grow into the effective team they seek to be.
While Embiid’s stretch of historic play has been enough to keep the team afloat, it will take a more complete effort from the rest of the Sixers for the ship to move further. Putting a larger focus on transition and asking for contributors outside of Maxey is an excellent place to start. This will help solve the efficiency issue that has Rivers concerned and improve the Sixers’ chances of winning overall. Undoubtedly this is easier said than done but should be a priority of the team nonetheless.
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