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The NBA trade season is beginning to heat up with December 15th marking the date on which players signed this summer are now available to be traded. The Philadelphia 76ers are sure to be among the active teams as they seek to catapult into a championship-caliber team the expectation was coming into the season. It has been difficult to get a full measure of where this team stacks up as significant injuries to Joel Embiid, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey have limited the opportunity to see the team as fully constructed.
A recent article by Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype listed the Sixers as one of the teams with the most pressure as the deadline approaches. As was written:
“It’s very difficult to evaluate this Sixers’ season thanks to all the injuries they’ve had so far. After going off to a terrible start against some of the best teams in the league, they managed to stabilize their record to .500 despite their absences and sport the league’s fourth-best defense. They still have the benefit of the doubt to improve their record and performance; James Harden just returned from injury and they are still awaiting Tyrese Maxey’s comeback from his. But after going all in constructing this roster to win now, pressure will mount up if they don’t produce enough wins.
The Sixers will be looking for deals to improve on the margins but that’s about it. They are all out of spending power and lack enough assets to make any significant upgrades. Outside of De’Anthony Melton, Philadelphia’s newest additions haven’t performed at the level they have hoped. They will be looking inside for internal improvements if they are going to join the Top 4 of the East,” per Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype.
Is Pressure on the Sixers?
While Daryl Morey does not have an overwhelming track record at the trade deadline, it should be expected that he puts all his chips in the middle this season. Morey commonly refers to the “five percent rule” as a roster construction mindset which he first publicly discussed on a Grantland Blog with Zach Lowe in 2012. The Sixers President of Basketball Operations has continued emphasizing this belief publicly as recently as last year on the Rights to Ricky Sanchez Podcast.
As Morey originally put it in 2012, “If you’ve got even a 5 percent chance to win the title — and that group includes a very small number of teams every year — you’ve gotta be focused all on winning the title,” the then Rockets General Manager stated on Grantland. This means doing whatever is necessary to maximize this chance and scouring the trade market certainly falls under this umbrella.
Are Sixers Within the 5%?
Now 27 games into the season, it is still extremely difficult to evaluate how good this Sixers team is. Sitting in 5th place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 15-12, the flurry of injuries has prevented fans, analysts, and Morey himself from truly identifying the team’s needs.
So far this season, the expected starting unit of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, P.J. Tucker, James Harden, and Tobias Harris have played just 114 total game minutes on the floor. The trio of Maxey, Harden, and Embiid have been active for just six games together this season. This is certainly correlated to the team’s slow start, but the lack of tape on the team as a whole has made it difficult to give a true evaluation.
However, the goal going into the season was clearly for the Sixers to contend for the championship. Embiid is playing at an MVP level once again- leading the NBA in scoring with 33.3 points per game while improving his defensive effort by a large margin in recent weeks. The brutal truth is that you cannot count on this level of play to last forever and it is important to maximize his peak while it is here. Embiid has done an impressive job taking care of his body and overcoming some significant injury concerns, but one misstep or unfortunate landing and that all can change.
Harden flashed some throwback scoring ability to start the season during Embiid’s sluggish start which was intriguing, to say the least. He has masterfully found the balance as a scorer and playmaker and is averaging 12.5 assists in his four games since coming back from injury. Harden has plenty to prove this season both from a short-term contract point and a long-term legacy standpoint. The 33-year-old also is not getting younger and, while he has done a solid job of altering his playstyle to remain effective this season, the signs of physical decline are there.
The youthful saving grace of the Sixers is Maxey, whose return to the court looks to be imminent. Prior to the broken foot, the 22-year-old looked to have taken another stride forward this year by increasing his scoring average to 22.9 points per game from the 17.5 points per game he scored last season. Most notably, Maxey continues to connect at an efficient 42.2% rate from beyond the three-point arc despite his volume going from 4.1 long-range attempts last year to 6.8 per game this season. His ability to contribute now paired with additions of win-now veterans like Tucker further reinforce the need for the Sixers to go for it this season.
The championship window may never be open more than it is right now. While the Sixers are not a perfectly constructed team as they currently stand, there are enough reasons for optimism to give them the best chance to win this season. Morey is as hungry as anyone to secure the ever-elusive championship and should be viewing it from this lens as well. With the December 15th deadline now passed and NBA trade talks heating up, expect the Sixers to be active in looking for ways to improve moving forward.
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