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At the NBA trade deadline, the Sixers only subtracted from their roster. They moved Jared McCain and Eric Gordon and received no NBA player in return.
Daryl Morey was asked at his post-deadline presser if he believed in his team’s depth:
“We feel like we’re a deep team. Again, people might not agree, but we do feel like a deep team. In fact, there are many people who are writing that we’re a deep team, so it wasn’t just our opinion. … You for sure always want more good players than bad players. We still have two roster spots. We’ll see what those are still to come.”
The team used the open roster spots and luxury tax savings to sign Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker — two guys who were already here — and plucked Cameron Payne back from overseas. Nobody expected the team to add a star at the deadline, but any upgrade would’ve been welcomed — especially by the team’s franchise player of the last decade.
Instead, the Sixers’ lack of depth, scoring, shooting and rebounding have haunted them time and time again. It might be what ultimately costs them a guaranteed playoff spot.
Coming into the season, nobody knew what to expect from Joel Embiid and Paul George. Their absences were already been baked into any team-building designs this past offseason. At this very website, we essentially said we thought anything Embiid and/or George would provide this season would be gravy.
Still, the team came into the season with second-year big Adem Bona, veteran Andre Drummond and rookie second-rounder Johni Broome as the only true fives on the roster behind Embiid. Maybe the team believed Broome, who was a heavily experienced and accomplished college player, could contribute right away. And with the way Drummond started the season, the Sixers got away with it … until they didn’t.
No backup center is going to come close to matching Embiid’s production, but the Sixers are lacking stability at the position.
Drummond took a nasty fall in Brooklyn in late November. Prior to that, he’d been giving the Sixers almost starter-caliber minutes when Embiid was sidelined. Though he didn’t miss any time, Drummond’s play has declined. Since Nov. 29, his numbers are down across the board. He was clearly supplanted by Bona for the primary backup role. While Bona is plenty promising, he’s still inexperienced, which shows at times. As for Broome, he never came close to cracking the lineup and had surgery to repair a torn meniscus this past weekend.
Drummond’s inability to contain Neemias Queta, a nice player who looked like prime Dwight Howard Sunday night, was alarming. The veteran big is one of the best rebounders in NBA history, but Queta was able to get 10 offensive rebounds by himself. The Celtics had 19 as a team. It’s a season-long pattern as the Sixers sit 20th in the league in rebounding. Conversely, Boston is sixth.
Here’s another depressing stat: McCain scored more points Sunday than Quentin Grimes and Payne combined. Like Drummond, Grimes got off a tremendous start, but his production has fallen off a cliff. He showed signs of life coming out of the All-Star break, but scored just 14 points combined over his last two games. As for Payne, he’s coming into a difficult spot. He’s had to adjust to time differences, a different league and new teammates. We’ve yet to see him provide much, but that’s sort of to be expected, at least right away.
Some were quick to point to Tyrese Maxey jacking up 34 shots as a reason for the team’s loss to the Celtics. While it was clear Maxey was pressing and forcing things in the first half, the question becomes, who would you rather take the shots? VJ Edgecombe took 21. Kelly Oubre Jr., who didn’t have one of his best nights, took 10. Should they be running more actions to get Drummond threes? Should they let Barlow run point forward? With all due respect to those players, Maxey’s hyper-aggressiveness is sort of necessary on nights like that because of the roster construction. The common factor for most Sixers’ wins without Embiid has been big Maxey nights.
Of course, if you want to complain about the offensive sets the team is running, it’s hard to quibble with that.
Sure, Oubre can have the occasional 20-point night and Grimes has done it in the past, but there needs to be other options. Right now, the Sixers boast one of the worst benches in the NBA. They’re 28th in points and threes per game from their reserves.
Outside of Maxey and Edgecombe, the Sixers don’t take or make enough threes. It’s something Nurse has sort of brushed off here, but in the modern NBA, you have to take high-volume threes. They took 31 threes Sunday — 22 combined from Maxey and Edgecombe. Drummond was the only other guy to take at least four. The Celtics jacked up 49 triples with seven guys putting at least four up. The Sixers are 20th in the NBA in threes per game. Boston is second. Which team would you rather be?
The Celtics, despite missing Jayson Tatum all season, are second in the East with guys like Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez giving them meaningful minutes while being on minimum contracts. They also acquired veteran big man Nikola Vucevic at the deadline.
The center position is an issue. The lack of scoring punch and shooting off the bench is an issue. Rebounding is an evergreen issue. With no reinforcements acquired at the deadline, the likely only way for the Sixers to remedy these problems is for Embiid and George to play.
Both should (hopefully) be ready to roll for the postseason. The issue could be getting there.