Whew! What an emotional roller coaster the Sixers have been thus far this season. Sitting at underwhelming 31-21 record and 6th in the Eastern Conference, there are many questions about this team and how good they truly are. There’s so much to talk about, but I’ll start on a positive note….

Sixers’ Trade Deadline Deals

All year, we’ve seen the Sixers’ weaknesses. Shooting and Ball-handling/ Shot Creation (we will talk about roster construction later on). Without much to offer to make a big splash, Elton quietly made a deal that could tremendously help the Sixers balance out the roster and rotation. In my trade primer piece, majority of trades included Mike Scott, Zhaire Smith and picks. Those pieces weren’t enough to land them some top notch shooter or ball handler. Elton also was not going to give up anyone in the starting lineup, as he still believes this team is built to beat the Bucks in a seven game playoff series.

Brand was able to trade three low value second picks to the Golden State Warriors for SG Alec Burks and SF Glenn Robinson III. It’s not the big splashy move but its exactly what the Sixers needed.

Alec Burks is a combo guard that can handle the ball, create for his teammates, shoot and get to the line. He’s had an average NBA career due to his early injury history, but he’s just what the Sixers need off the bench. So far this year his stats are:

12 20+ point games
Shooting 38% from 3-point range (47% over the last 10 games)
5 FTA per game with 90% FT percentage
16.1 PPG

Glenn Robinson III, who will now be known as GR3 hereafter, is a three point specialist with some bounce. GR3 has been on a few teams in career thus far and was actually a “Process” Sixer in 2014-15. Before this season in Golden State, his best year was in Indiana (2016-17), where he started 27 games and won the Dunk Contest during all-star weekend. GR3 is bringing much needed shooting and spacing, as well as a great off the ball movement. This year his stats are:

41% 3-point percentage
42% Corner 3-point percentage
40% Catch & Shoot 3-point percentage
12.9 PPG

These guys will balance out the roster and provide much needed scoring and depth. I honestly can’t wait to see lineups of Simmons-Burks-Korkmaz-GR3-Al Horford. This should be a deadly line up of scoring. Also the lineup of Simmons-Richardson-Burks-Harris-Embiid should provide a lot of PNR options to get to the bucket.

*Side Note* To make room for these acquisitions, James Ennis was traded to the Orlando Magic, and Trey Burke/Jonah Bolden was waived.

Current State of the Sixers

The Sixers are 31-21 and have lost 4 straight, which all happened to be road games. The Sixers are now 9-19 on the road and 6th in the Eastern Conference. Honestly, I don’t know where to start and I feel like I’m one of the most optimistic people in the city about the Sixers. The city’s panic meter level is at a 14 on a scale of 1-10. They lost to the Hawks, Celtics by 21, Heat by 31, and Bucks. There are multiple reasons of why the season has gone the way it has.

The first reason is roster construction. Elton Brand and the owners signed Al Horford this summer as Embiid insurance and to help beat the Bucks. Well, the Sixers have to make it to the ECF in order for this strategy to work. The spacing has been bad and having Al shoot 6 threes a game is not his strength. With Ben not shooting and Tobias’ up and down shooting, this team doesn’t have the players to make Brett Brown’s free flowing scheme work. It’s on Elton Brand to take ownership on the way the roster is constructed but its on Brett to scheme these guys into better shots and have a more complimentary rotation.

Another reason the Sixers look like crap is because they don’t play with effort as a collective group. Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson are the only two players that bring effort and defensive intensity every night. Matisse Tybulle shows flashes but his shooting ins’t consistent enough to keep him on the floor. I love Joel Embiid, but his effort and attitude has been atrocious all year and has only gotten worse. Tobias and Horford turn the effort on and off when they want to. These guys have to dive for loose balls, run through screens, and get offensive rebounds. There was a sequence in Atlanta at the end of the third quarter where Vince Carter shot a three and missed. Embiid just thought the clock was going to run out and showed no effort to get the rebound. Hawks center Damion Jones just jumped over Embiid and put back the missed three at the buzzer. Momentum killer as Sixers would have had the lead down to three going into the fourth quarter instead of five.

All in all, my panic meter for this team is at a 7 out of 10. Hopefully these new guys can come in and help provide better shooting and attitude. The Sixers have the Grizz, Bulls, and Clippers all at home before the all star game. There is no reason why this team shouldn’t go into the All Star break with 3 straight wins at home. I still believe this team can get to 3rd seed with them being only 5 games back with the tie-breaker over the Celtics. They have the 4th easiest schedule remaining according to tankathon.com but 17 of the remaining 30 games are on the road. I hope the Sixers can prove me right.