This article was inevitable, given the current state of affairs surrounding the Sixers. With the latest Joel Embiid injury news and the absolutely heart-shattering Jared McCain injury news, the Sixers find themselves in a perilous position- but it is a position they are very used to being in.
Joel Embiid was always going to miss time this season, though the amount of time he has missed thus far was certainly not part of the plan, with now his third stay on the injury report. It was a safe bet to assume Paul George was going to miss time as well, and he, too, has already had two stints on the IL. Even Tyrese Maxey has already missed six games with a hamstring injury. The Sixers have played 24 games in total.
The question for this iteration of the Sixers was always going to be how they would fare without Joel Embiid in the regular season hoping that they could get him to the postseason in one piece. Getting him to the postseason healthy seems like it has no chance of happening. As far as how they would fare without Joel Embiid, that part is still up for debate as George and Maxey continue to develop chemistry now that they are both healthy and playing.
The Jared McCain revelation would have been the first reason to point to as to why this could finally be the year that the Sixers do not go in the tank when Embiid does not play. But with McCain tearing his meniscus, the Sixers will not have his shooting and offensive prowess to fall back on for the foreseeable future. Instead, the Sixers are going to have to rely on the basics to climb out of the hole they have dug for themselves.
The little things
Doing the nitty-gritty work on the court does not always show up in the box score but is a prerequisite for any good basketball team. It is an utter necessity when you are without your best player and are trying to win games. The Sixers have the personnel to execute successfully on those intricacies.
Off-ball cutting to the rim is paramount to finding easy points throughout a game by catching the defense napping. Kelly Oubre, Caleb Martin, KJ Martin, and Paul George all have the size and athleticism to punish the other team for letting them get by.
Some of Oubre’s best offensive moments as a Sixer have been his timely cuts to help out Joel Embiid from the nail and post. Basically, all of KJ Martin’s best moments as a Sixer have been from the dunker’s spot. They are just going to have to figure out how to garner those same opportunities with Maxey or George running the show.
Stealing extra possessions by any means necessary and mucking up games is how undermanned teams keep it close, heading into crunch time. Caleb Martin’s best attribute for the Sixers so far in his tenure has been his trademark hustle and energy. He flies in out of thin air to attack the glass and is constantly looking for advantageous poke-out opportunities. As the Sixers start winning more games, his knack for never giving up on possessions will become contagious- we saw it consistently during his time in Miami.
Team defense
Without a steady rim protector currently suiting up for the team, being as active and engaged on the perimeter as possible is one way the Sixers can keep games close. They have the right roster to do just that for a lot of the reasons mentioned previously.
As Paul George has struggled to find his offensive rhythm so far with his new team, his defense has exceeded expectations. George has long been one of the better perimeter defenders in the league, but he turned 34 years old in May and has taken a backseat on that end of the floor in recent years as his offensive load increased. With Embiid now out, his offensive load again will tick up, but it cannot be a trade off for his defense this time.
He will be able to spare some of his energy for the defensive end of the floor because he can seamlessly switch on defense with the likes of Kelly Oubre and Caleb Martin. George’s length is a constant nuisance in passing lanes, so him staying back near the top of the key and allowing others to shepherd the defense at the point-of-attack may be the best option for the team at the current juncture.
Factoring in the aforementioned abilities of the role players and wings on the roster, and Tyrese Maxey’s improvements on the defensive end of the floor, the Sixers structurally should be able to contain a lot of guard-led offenses at the least. Maybe when Adem Bona returns, he and KJ Martin can provide enough verticality at the rim to tie everything together.
Stars playing like stars
It is no secret that Tyrese Maxey and Paul George have not performed up to expectations thus far into the season- it does not matter that both have missed time with injury. When those guys are on the court, their resumes and contracts say that they have to show up. Nobody else is going to win the team ball games without Joel Embiid.
Tyrese Maxey bulked up this past offseason to be able to withstand the rigors of battling amongst the bigs in the paint. What putting on as much muscle as he did almost always equates to, though, is an ensuing shooting slump as the human body tries to adapt to a new muscle memory. Maxey hopefully is finding his out of that, having shot 12/29 on three-point attempts in the last three games, good for 41.4 percent. Compare that to the three games before that, where he shot 2/21 from outside, just 9.5 percent.
Paul George is slowly finding his niche on the team as well after struggling to fit in the first couple of months of the season. A lot of offensive possessions for the Sixers were dying as soon as the ball touched George’s hands. Paul George is capable of taking and making tough shots, but completely stopping the flow of the offense by chewing up the shot clock and dribbling in isolation plagued the Sixers more times than it should have early in the season.
With Embiid out, George has been operating the offense a lot more instead of being a designated scorer, which has allowed him to get his feel for each game and has allowed Tyrese Maxey the luxury of playing off-ball where he is most dangerous as a shooter.
This was supposed to be the year the Sixers could hold their own without Joel Embiid. So far, that vision has proved laughable. However, with some internal growth and development and a commitment to the fundamental “winning plays”, the Sixers have enough pieces in place to win basketball games. If Tyrese Maxey and Paul George play to their capabilities when Embiid is out, they still have two of the three best players in most games. All things considered that is a good place to start.
