What's going to 2024-25 Sixers have the ability to rely upon?

What will 2024-25 Sixers be able to depend on? initially appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The 2024-25 Sixers will start coaching camp on Oct. 1 in the Bahamas.

As that date approaches, we’ll dive into a number of vital subjects for the crew in Nick Nurse’s second season as head coach.

First up: What’s going to the Sixers have the ability to rely upon? 

The Sixers are accustomed to unstable swings in fortune, Joel Embiid injury woes and critical roster shakeups. By means of all of it, they’ve been an excellent regular-season crew because the 2017-18 marketing campaign at 347-208 total (62.5 successful proportion).

It’s nonetheless felt at occasions just like the Sixers can’t depend on a lot, particularly within the playoffs. For this 12 months, our pre-camp learn is that the next three areas ought to be comparatively dependable.

Prolific scoring by the celebrities 

Joel Embiid averaged extra factors than minutes per recreation final common season. He scored 50 factors on 13-for-19 capturing within the Sixers’ Game 3 playoff win over the Knicks. In Sport 5, Tyrese Maxey dropped 46. Paul George is now a part of a Sixers star trio.

Will the Sixers be able to working round some subpar exterior capturing performances from their high gamers? George hasn’t drawn heaps of foul pictures lately and Maxey remains to be determining the nuances of when to actively search out contact and when to focus solely on ending inside. Nevertheless, Embiid’s foul drawing typically helps to mitigate slumps. He’s shot 11.7 free throws per recreation over the previous three seasons and the Sixers ranked third in free throw charge final 12 months as a crew, per Cleaning the Glass.

On most nights, the Sixers ought to be snug leaning on their stars’ many offensive items.

Secure decision-making 

Whereas Nurse will encourage Maxey to play an even speedier, more aggressive style, the 23-year-old is a habitually low-turnover participant. He dedicated over three turnovers in just six games last regular season and his 6.6 turnover proportion was lowest among NBA point guards.

The Sixers had the NBA’s best turnover percentage exterior of rubbish time within the 2023-24 season and none of their offseason pickups ought to harm them badly in that division.

Nurse additionally received’t tolerate a ton of reckless, possession-squandering performs by non-star gamers. If Andre Drummond is throwing overly bold backdoor passes or Eric Gordon’s having a unusually sloppy night time, there’s a good likelihood Nurse will contemplate different choices.

Position gamers with signature non-shooting expertise 

This one’s a lot much less particular and quantifiable. Once more, we’ll return to the chilly capturing state of affairs. Even when no Sixer is having an ideal capturing recreation, it’s honest to imagine Drummond will be an elite rebounder; Kyle Lowry will probably be exceptionally clever and aggressive; Caleb Martin will probably be versatile defensively and discover methods to chip in as a cutter, slasher and offensive rebounder.

The Sixers all the time want three-point capturing round their stars — Buddy Hield’s enchantment final commerce deadline was apparent — however the crew’s present forged of function gamers appears reliable for lots greater than jumpers.

In a broad sense, that high quality might be the distinction between an ample exhibiting in Embiid-less playoff minutes and a disastrous blown lead. That’ll be the hope, anyway.