If the Sixers take drastic measures and shut down any of their top players the young guns might eke out a few wins.
So now that we’re all “processing” again, there’s one kind of weird thing to consider: what if the Sixers announced for example that Joel Embiid is done for the season, and let’s say Nick Nurse finally accepts the situation and turns more and more to the young guns, could this Philadelphia 76ers team actually … improve?
Remember once upon a time when the basketball world was saying that Sam Hinkie’s Sixers assembled a team designed to lose? Well OK, he did accomplish that goal. But let’s look back at the roster for a moment. You had guys like T.J. McConnell, Robert Covington and Jerami Grant playing their tails off to prove themselves as bonafide NBA talents.
Fast forward nearly a decade and that trio has gone on to earn an astronomical amount of combined career earnings. Daryl Morey has had a nose for cheap talent and if we start to see more and more playing time for names like Kelly Oubre Jr., Guershon Yabusele, Quentin Grimes, Justin Edwards, Adem Bona, Lonnie Walker IV, Ricky Council IV, David Roddy (actually drafted by the Sixers as part of the De’Anthony Melton acquisition), Jared Butler, or Jeff Downtin Jr., they could actually get scrappier than they are right now.
I know some of you may be squinting or laughing at that idea, but it’s not completely absurd if we’re talking about perhaps a single win or two down the stretch, right? The Sixers have the sixth worst record in the NBA, BUT they’re not “safe.” They’re only a single game “behind” the Brooklyn Nets in the standings. There are still 24 games remaining in the schedule and by doing anything at all differently than they’re doing now, having lost nine straight games, they’d “risk” a player or two suddenly stepping up.
You remember T.J.’s game winner against the Knicks back in 2017.
If the Sixers were to start shutting down players like Joel Embiid, or even Paul George, they might start to see more minutes from players who are going to play as hard as they can.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) they have the fifth-easiest strength of schedule remaining. And as someone all aboard the tank train I’m honestly a bit worried that they could inject some life into their own lineups by injecting more youth and unproven talents.
Again, it wasn’t long ago that people confidently assumed that Hinkie had T.J., Cov and Grant in to throw ballgames. So you just never know. Right now they’re doing everything just right and losing a ton. But what happens if they change what they’re doing?
Our Josh Grieb recently pointed out that:
“When [Embiid has] been on the court, he has still been used like the offensive hub that was winning scoring titles. Despite an 11-point decrease in points per game and a 12% drop in effective field goal percentage, Embiid still has the highest usage rate on the team.
Not only is his 35.2% usage rate the largest on the Sixers, but it’s still one of the higher rates in the entire league — the 99th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass, to be exact.”
When he plays, Maxey doesn’t get as many looks. Right now it’s all smooth sailing. But what happens if they make lineup changes? There are no guarantees in the NBA Draft Lottery, and there are no guarantees this tank train will keep chugging smoothly. Just ask T.J. who still takes it personally when people crack that those old Process teams were built to lose.
They can’t risk losing this No. 1-6 protected pick to an already outstanding Thunder team. And right now things are going rather … well, well.