The Philadelphia 76ers came within one game of the Eastern Conference Finals two and a half years ago, at the end of the 2011-2012 season. They haven’t been the same ever since.
What Went Wrong Last Season?
Everything.
The Sixers won an early game against the Miami Heat and might have played their best basketball of the whole season in the first week. After that, this team did very little, if anything, right. The Sixers were an absolutely atrocious defensive team. They gave up an average of 109.9 points per game, the worst in the NBA. The Sixers finished in the bottom three of the league, 28th or worse, in several different defensive categories. Opponents made tons of field goals against the Sixers, tons of threes, and tons of foul shots. Defensive rebounding was terrible as well – it was a complete nightmare for the Sixers at that end of the basketball court. This was a toothless team that could rarely if ever strike fear into the heart of its opponents.
That wasn’t the whole story, though. The Sixers plainly could not shoot well, either. Philadelphia was one of the two worst teams in the league in terms of overall field goal shooting percentage, three-point shooting percentage, and free throw shooting percentage. If there was at least one part of the game in which the Sixers could rely on getting consistent numbers from their roster, Philadelphia could have been able to play the game in a specific style, one that would be conducive to a better rate of performance. However, the Sixers couldn’t really do any one thing at a noticeably better rate than another, and that’s why this team failed to win 20 games in the past season. It’s going to take a long time for this organization to climb out of the hole it has dug for itself.
Offseason Changes
As you might expect of a really bad team, the Sixers burned through a lot of players last season in the hopes of finding the right answers. A total of 24 players were on the roster at some point last season. What’s new for the 2014-2015 season? Start with draft picks. Philadelphia took Kansas big man Joel Embiid despite his injuries and the concerns related to them. You’re probably not going to see much from Embiid this season in terms of minutes, but he’s a long-term investment for the franchise. Jerami Grant is another member of this past year’s draft class that will join the Sixers at the start of the season. Thaddeus Young has been shipped to Minnesota as part of the three-team trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers that sent Kevin Love to LeBron James’ side. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute came from Minnesota to Philadelphia as part of that package.
Projected Finish
The Sixers are a mess. They can expect a really good season from Michael Carter-Williams and maybe from Nerlens Noel, and that’s about it. This is not a deep team, and it is not a talented team. It’s not going to come anywhere close to the playoffs. That’s a fairly safe bet.
Pick: Last In The Eastern Conference
