What are the Causes of the Sixers’ Struggles?
From my perspective, there are three real reasons why this season has thus far been underwhelming for the fans.
I’ll go into detail about each of them, but I first want to ask you, the reader, why you think the Sixers have been struggling this season? I usually reserve my question to the fans for the end of the article, but I’m especially curious to see if I’m on an island with these reasons or if these are shared thoughts amongst Sixers Nation.
Injuries
I’ll start with the one that is most prevalent in our minds. Despite what other opinions you may have, I don’t think there’s a real argument for this one. Out of a possible 65 games this season, Al Horford has missed 5, Ben Simmons has missed 11, Josh Richardson has missed 17, and Joel Embiid has missed 21.
When your starters and sixth-man miss considerable amounts of games, the momentum is thrown off, which is what the Sixers have been dealing with all season.
It seems as though the lineup hasn’t been at full strength all year. It’s frustrating as a fan to not know who is in and who is out of the lineup on a game-to-game basis, so imagine how it must feel for the players. We’ve seen how injuries can derail a season with our Philadelphia Eagles this most recent season. Let’s hope that if the season resumes, or next year, the Sixers can stay healthy.
The Rotation
In writing this section, I had to ask myself who the starters are for the Sixers. I want to say it is Simmons, Richardson, Furkan Korkmaz, Harris, and Embiid, with Horford off the bench, but I’m honestly not sure. Building off of the previous section, the large amounts of missed games from starters and important players has led to significant changes in the starting lineup. Also, the Embiid-Horford pairing on the court at the same time doesn’t seem to be working.
This prompted Al Horford to move to the bench, which started to work before injuries changed those plans, as well. And starters aside, we don’t have any form of consistency with our role players. Mike Scott will go from playing about 15 minutes a game, to not playing at all, to starting a game.
What are the Sixers doing with Zhaire Smith, Glenn Robinson, and Alec Burks? Do Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid even have backups? The state of the current Sixers’ rotation is leaving us with more questions than answers.
Depth
I just brought up the point about who comes off our bench and here we are. Two of my three most recent articles have mentioned how the Sixers need a real backup for both Joel and Ben. I also don’t think it’s a bold statement to say the Sixers need more skill off of the bench. This lack of consistent depth forces the starters to play increased minutes, which is a recipe for disaster in the playoffs. Tobias Harris, who is the only player on the Sixers’ roster to have been active for every game this season, leads the league in minutes played.
In an era of load management, which programs games off into player’s schedules, we cannot rely on our only healthy player to burn himself out before the playoffs start.
I will say, these narratives I’m leaning on don’t normally include two months off before the playoffs due to a global pandemic, but it is true that adding miles to our starters before a playoff push because that is the only way to keep games competitive will catch up to us.
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Categorized:Sixers