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The season has not started the way the Philadelphia 76ers had hoped. The team had an eventful offseason which included resigning James Harden and bringing in several rotational pieces. Despite the increased expectations and impressive amount of talent on the roster, they are off to a 1-4 start where a number of concerns have shown face. The poor play has not sat well with a number of the 76ers with Joel Embiid voicing his frustrations following the recent loss to the Raptors.
Embiid spoke with Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer following Wednesday’s loss and stated, “It’s all about effort. You got to be honest about it. It doesn’t matter what the coaching staff says. It doesn’t matter what the game plan is. If we don’t go out there and execute, we are not going to go anywhere. So it’s all about effort, having the mentality of playing hard and having each other’s back and just flying around.”
Sixers Effort Level
This is not a difficult observation from the superstar as the Sixers have found themselves on the wrong side of the hustle stats to start the season. This has been most obvious in the team’s transition defense. The Sixers are allowing 21.2 points per game in transition which ranks 29th in the NBA. Through the opening five games, they have been outscored 106-57 in fast break points.
As Embiid pointed out, this mostly has to do with the Sixers’ effort level. The simple inability to get back in transition mostly can be attributed to the players’ willingness to sprint back and get prepared. The Sixers have repeatedly gotten beaten down the floor and this has opened the door for opponents to score easy points.
While Doc Rivers has caught the brunt of the criticism online, Embiid seems to offer defense in this coach. He stated that it does not matter what the coaching staff says and it is on the Sixers as a team to take responsibility for this.
Embiid’s Effort Level
It should be noted that Embiid has caught some criticism for his individual effort to start the season as well. This was especially seen in the opening three games of the season. Embiid did not come into the season in his ideal shape as he was forced to spend most of the offseason rehabbing from surgery on both his hands and plantar fasciitis on his feet.
His lack of fitness to start the season has been evident and is correlated to the slow start. The reigning MVP runner-up has taken some strides forward in the past two games but the body language Embiid gave off to open the season was especially concerning. He was constantly seen with his hands on his knees, looking a step slow, and not as locked in as should be expected.
In fairness to the superstar, Embiid has improved this in a major way, especially in the Raptors game. He ended the matchup with 31 points, five rebounds, and three assists. Embiid did a much better job doing off-ball work to establish a deep post position and shot 12-17 from the field as a result. The defensive effort still is a work in progress, but Embiid did everything possible to keep the Sixers in the game against Toronto. He served as the driving force of the offense and carried the team for stretches in a necessary way.
The Sixers’ roster is much better than it has played thus far. Hopefully, this public acknowledgment that the effort has not been acceptable will start to change things. The last time the Sixers started the season 1-4 was in 2017-18. That team won five consecutive games following the slow start and ended with a record of 52-30 on the season. They will hope a similar type of effort is seen from this Sixers team. It is still extremely early in the season but the effort level must be fixed for any of this success to occur.
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