Season Review 2012/13:
|
Advanced Stats
|
|
|
Numbers
|
Rank
|
|
Pace
|
91.0
|
20
|
|
Offense
|
102.0
|
26
|
|
Defense
|
102.0
|
15
|
|
Rebound
|
49.9
|
20
|
|
4 Factors
|
|
Offense
|
Numbers
|
Rank
|
Defense
|
Numbers
|
Rank
|
|
eFG%
|
48.1
|
21
|
eFG%
|
49.5
|
14
|
|
TO%
|
12.5
|
2
|
TO%
|
13.7
|
15
|
|
Reb%
|
24.9
|
24
|
Reb%
|
26.6
|
16
|
|
FT%
|
14.6
|
30
|
FT%
|
20.0
|
14
|
|
Monthly Performance
|
|
|
Record
|
OffRtg
|
DefRtg
|
|
November
|
10-6
|
104.9
|
104.1
|
|
December
|
4-11
|
105.2
|
109.9
|
|
January
|
5-9
|
102.3
|
108.1
|
|
February
|
3-8
|
97.4
|
104.8
|
|
March
|
8-9
|
107.5
|
109.0
|
|
April
|
4-5
|
103.7
|
107.8
|
The 76ers were one of the biggest players in last season’s off-season when they managed to sign Andrew Bynum from the Lakers. Philadelphia had been one of the nicest surprises of the previous seasons with Doug Collins being considered as one of the best coaches in the league. They took advantage of Derrick’s Rose serious injury to upset the #1 seed Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, while they also gave a big fight to the Boston Celtics in the second round in a tight 7-game series.
With Bynum’s acquisition, the Sixers’ expectations raised exponentially. Before the start of the season, the oddsmakers gave Philadelphia a regular season line of 47 wins, turning them into one of the contenders to grab home court advantage for the first round of the playoffs. They were also considered as a tough matchup for the reigning champions Miami Heat due to the tremendous size edge they would have at the center position with Andrew Bynum playing for them.
One way or another, Andrew Bynum was always going to be the team’s key for success and unfortunately, that was true but for the worst reasons. Once the Bynum circus started, it never stopped. Since incidents with bumper cars, weird hairdos, the truth is that Bynum didn’t play a single minute last season.
With no presence down low, Doug Collins had a tough job ahead of him, but the truth is that Philadelphia had a nice start of the season. By end November, they had a 10-6 record, but they couldn’t handle this kind of success for much longer. In fact, this good start of the season was only possible due to a very soft schedule, where they managed to get six wins against New Orleans, Toronto (twice), Cleveland, Phoenix and Charlotte.
Once the schedule got tougher, Doug Collins simply couldn’t prevent his team from losing games after games and Philadelphia had five consecutive losing months.
With Andre Iguodala’s trade to Denver, Jrue Holiday was the new team leader, even though he was just 22 years old. His minutes per game jumped to 37.5, while he had the double duty of being the team’s main scorer and playmaker, with him grabbing new career seasons on points (17.7 points/game) and assists (8.0 assists/game), but this didn’t come without more risk taking and Holiday also had a career high 3.7 turnovers per game.
Not only the 76ers lacked the proper depth on their roster to be competitive, as also Doug Collins didn’t trust in all his players: Evan Turner, Dorell Wright, Lavoy Allen and the rookie Arnett Moultrie were on his doghouse several times throughout the seasons. Collins kept overusing his starting lineup until the wheels came off. Jason Richardson had a season ending injury on January 18th, while Jrue Holiday who was an All-Star couldn’t keep his level during the season high of the season, having poor numbers (39.7% FG and 6.7 assists per game) after the break.
At the end of the season, it was clear that Doug Collins didn’t have the proper conditions to remain in Philadelphia. The players “lost” all respect for him, while Collins didn’t have patience to coach them anymore as well, as it was clear when he threw his players under the bus several times throughout the season.
Offseason Report:
The Sixers were once again one of the biggest players in the offseason, but this time their goals were the opposite from the ones they had one year ago. If their goal last season was to try to get to the finals, this time their goal was to clean their roster and prepare to get a high pick in next year’s draft.
Sam Hinkie is their new GM and President of Basketball Operations. Prior to being hired by the Sixers, Hinkie spent eight seasons with the Rockets and he promoted the use of advanced stats while being led by GM Daryl Morey. After some time of uncertainty, Brett Brown was appointed as the Sixers’ new head coach and we are talking about another former assistant of Gregg Popovich who gets a shot at being a NBA head coach.
When Hinkie drafted Michael Carter-Williams with the #11 overall pick, this looked fishy, as Philadelphia had just selected a player for the same position of their leader Jrue Holiday. This was quickly explained when later in the day, Hinkie traded Holiday to New Orleans in order to get Nerlens Noel. So, Philadelphia got their new PG and Center for the future in the same day and a lot is expected from these two players.
Season Preview
Philadelphia has no playoffs aspirations for this season whatsoever. Their goals for the new season will be to develop their young players and try to get a top draft pick in next year’s draft.
Nerlens Noel will only be fit to play in 2014 and his physical condition is a major question mark. It’s curious that Philadelphia is pretty much in the same situation they were with Andrew Bynum only one year ago. Noel was predicted to be the draft’s #1 overall pick, but his physical condition made him fell into the #6 pick.
Michael Carter-Williams will be the team’s future PG and he will have a tough season ahead of him, on a very competitive season. The biggest immediate problem for MCW is that he can’t shoot, as seen on his college season last year, where he shot just 39.3% FG at Syracuse. Things didn’t look any better on Summer League, where he shot a combined of 27.1% FG on five games. The good news for him is that he won’t have any pressure in being effective this season and Philadelphia won’t mind that Carter-Williams struggles on his shooting this season, as long as he improves a bit at least.
This season will be the last chance for the guard Evan Turner, who has been a disappointment for the franchise. This is Turner’s last year on his contract, so he will be super motivated to impress the league this season. The fact that Doug Collins isn’t coaching the team anymore will be good news for Turner, as the two couldn’t get along well and Collins had zero confidence on his player. Turner played all 82 games last season, but his 41.9% FG was just too poor for a guard that played 35.3 minutes/game, while attempting 12.8 shots per game.
Thaddeus Young should be the team’s most “ready” player this season. He is just 25 years old and his evolution has been quite positive during his NBA career. He has definitely become the team’s PF for the present and the future and his 7.5 rebounds/game from last season prove that he can grab some rebounds after all. His mobility and the fact that he is left handed turn into one of the league’s toughest matchups to guard and he is definitely a perfect fit to the “third best player” in a top team.
Spencer Hawes, Jason Richardson and Kwame Brown won’t certainly be part of the franchise’s future and so, Hinski will definitely try to trade them before the trade deadline, as they all bring little contributions to the team.
Two seasons ago, Philadelphia was giving the Celtics a huge fight on the playoffs to try to get into the conference final. But now, Philadelphia will fight with the Celtics once again, but for the “title” of the worst team in the East, as this will be a transition season for them, where anything positive will be an unexpected surprise for the team.