Sixers New Year's Resolutions

The last few months of 2022 have predictably been filled with ups and downs, but the time has come to flip the page to 2023. Who doesn’t love a New Year’s resolution story?

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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This can be said for just about any of the last 10 years, but 2022 was a wild year in the Philadelphia 76ers universe.

Early on, we were tracking the eventual conclusion of the chaotic Ben Simmons saga. When Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond were sent to Brooklyn, the story became integrating the player the Sixers went all-in on as Joel Embiid’s sidekick: James Harden.

And then came the playoffs. There was the epic Embiid game-winner, then there was Embiid suffering another facial injury. There was the DeAndre Jordan vs. Paul Reed disaster, and finally, there was playoff disappointment.

Then came the summer, and you know what happened then: James Harden re-upped with the team while taking a massive pay-cut, which enabled the signing of his longtime friend and teammate PJ Tucker.

The last few months of 2022 have predictably been filled with ups and downs, but the time has come to flip the page to 2023. Who doesn’t love a New Year’s resolution story?

James Harden: Cut down playing time
Harden has long been the NBA’s resident Iron Man, logging absurdly high minutes totals while barely ever resting when with the Houston Rockets. But Harden is 33 years old, now -- he no longer is indestructible, and that’s okay.

Harden, who missed about a month of the season due to a foot injury, has averaged 39.1 minutes per game in his 11 contests since returning. If he qualified for the leaderboards at the moment, his 38.1 minutes per game on the season would easily top the next-highest: Toronto’s OG Anunoby, who logs 37.0 minutes per contest.

During Tyrese Maxey’s absence, Harden had immense ball-handling responsibilities, even when speaking relatively. While Shake Milton’s emergence has been a boon for the Sixers, it hasn’t been enough to prevent Harden from totaling a concerning amount of minutes almost on a nightly basis.

Maxey will certainly be eased back into things. But once he is back in full swing, it absolutely needs to be a priority over the last few months of the season that Harden’s workload is managed carefully, even if there is a short-term penalty for doing so.

Joel Embiid: Maintain defensive intensity
When Embiid is completely engaged and focused on the defensive end of the floor, you can count on one hand the more impactful defensive players in the entire NBA. But these days, that level of engagement is not always there.

This is understandable: Embiid is an injury-prone big-man who now has one of the largest offensive workloads in all of basketball. He also spends much of his time on offense taking hits as he baits opposing defenders into putting him on the free throw line.

There is no doubt that Embiid will need to continue to build his case as the league’s very best scorer if the Sixers want to do damage in the playoffs. But he will also need to find the right balance: as valuable as his offense is, this team is in its most lethal form when he is dominating with his rim protection, swatting and altering shots inside against any and all challengers.

Tyrese Maxey: Shoot even more threes
Maxey entered the NBA a timid shooter, especially in spot-up situations. He has always been far more comfortable attacking a closeout and getting to the lane for a floater or layup.

All of a sudden in the 2021-22 season, he began to fire away from three-point range. The improvement of his shot diet has been terrific ever since, even reaching 6.8 three-point attempts per game in his 15 games played this season, predating last night’s injury.

Given where Maxey’s confidence as a shooter was just a couple of years ago, being where he’s at now is tremendously impressive. But what if I told you that when he returns, he should shoot even more?

De’Anthony Melton, who played in 17 of the team’s 18 games after Maxey went down (all starts), took 7.9 three-point tries per game during that span. Known for his terrific perimeter defense, Melton has found a way to make the team’s half-court offense considerably better.

Melton did this by always being ready to launch. His shooting has been very accurate of late, but I think the volume at which he’s shot threes is actually more important than the accuracy of those shots.

And that brings me back to Maxey: when he leads Harden-less units as a primary scorer and creator, by all means, he should use his quick burst, athleticism and touch to hunt the best shots possible.

But Maxey is going to spend a considerable amount of time playing alongside Harden and/or Embiid. And in those minutes, his objective should be to let it fly whenever he gets the chance. High-volume three-point shooters do not grow on trees, and Maxey has both the environment and ability enabling him to become one to an even greater degree.

Tobias Harris: Don’t change a thing
I have been more critical of Harris than most throughout the course of his Sixers tenure. But as things stand now, I legitimately cannot find a single thing he is doing that needs to be corrected. And I promise, I’m not just saying this because he came on the Ricky.

The most common criticism of Harris since arriving here was that his playstyle wasn’t conducive with optimizing the players around him -- his methodical, slow-paced self-creation served him well in prior stops, but did not make him a natural fit with players like Embiid, Simmons and Harden, who thrive alongside more decisive players.

Harris is in the best mindspace he has been in as a Sixer: he is shooting threes at the highest volume and efficiency of his Sixers tenure. His defense continues to improve -- while he’ll never make an All-Defense team, he is very far from a weak link.

It’s often been hard to imagine this team being the best it possibly could be with the way he plays. No longer is that the case.

De’Anthony Melton: Get to the free throw line
Let me get out ahead of this and say that I am most definitely nitpicking here. Melton has been outstanding this season, playing perimeter defense even better than advertised and having what is easily the best shooting season of his career.

Melton is getting triples up far more than he ever has before, and has still managed to put together one of his most efficient seasons. He’s also been a more than serviceable secondary ball-handler, particularly during the absences of Harden and Maxey, when he was a major player in keeping the team afloat.

Watching him play and evaluating his numbers, the only real weakness that stands out in his game is drawing fouls -- his miniscule Free Throw Attempt rate of .091 is easily the lowest of his career.

Is this the biggest deal in the world? No. The Sixers certainly shoot enough free throws on a nightly basis thanks to their two superstars. But if we’re trying to figure out what can propel Melton to the next level, getting to the line seems like the most obvious answer.

PJ Tucker: Do… something with the ball sometimes?
I think some have been a bit too harsh on Tucker this year, but his usage rate of 6.4 percent, dead-last among 189 qualifying NBA players this season (and considerably lower than the next-lowest), tells the whole story.

Tucker has of course never been ball-dominant, and that’s okay. Low-usage role players make big differences for great teams every year. But it’s difficult to stomach giving starter-level minutes to someone with this low usage.

I am certainly not advocating that the Sixers run plays for Tucker. But when he can get to a little one-handed push shot in the paint off a dish from Harden or Embiid, he should take it! If he gets an offensive rebound, maybe look at the basket first before kicking the ball back out to the perimeter!

Tucker does more good than bad for the Sixers. But it will continue to be difficult to play him at the ends of games on offense, as his presence makes their entire offense much more predictable.

Shake Milton: Prepare to spot up
Whenever the Sixers have needed Milton to step up and become a primary engineer of offense this season, he has answered the bell in convincing fashion. But as this team reaches its eventual full form, Milton’s role will change.

Only 25 percent of Milton’s field goal attempts so far this season have come from beyond the arc, according to Cleaning the Glass, by far the lowest percentage of his career. When he’s being asked to consistently generate offense for himself and others, that’s okay.

Even if Milton is overqualified to be an off-ball fourth guard at this point, that is what his role will be barring injuries. When the Sixers are at their best, the ball is in the hands of Harden or Maxey.

As impressive as Milton’s scoring has been, his 4.7 three-point attempts per 100 possessions, also easily the lowest mark of his career, just cannot remain the same for much longer.

Ultimately, this is a good problem to have: a team can never have too many trustworthy ball-handlers. But the fact of the matter is that this is where we stand: when Harden and Maxey are both healthy, Milton needs to be ready to fire away off the catch rather than creating offense himself.

Georges Niang: Stay viable defensively
Throughout a regular season, Niang’s elite shooting makes him a shoe-in for Rivers’ rotation. But as we saw last spring, his lack of mobility and defensive ability makes him extremely unreliable, particularly when teams begin picking on him.

Both anecdotally and statistically, Niang has looked a lot better defensively this season. Is that saying much? Not necessarily. But in the regular season, he has managed to be passable on that end of the floor.

In last season’s playoffs, he wasn’t even close to passable, especially as he dealt with a knee injury that he had to manage for the last few weeks of the regular season and the entire playoffs.

Nobody is expecting Niang to become a stopper -- the Sixers have enough guys they trust to take on major defensive assignments against the league’s best players. But they need his floor spacing on offense in big moments, and the only way they can get it is by ensuring he can’t be completely exploited by opposing offenses.

Danuel House Jr.: Remember that less is sometimes more
I have enjoyed watching House Jr. so far this season, largely due to the wackiness that seems to follow him.

House Jr., prone to being at the center of bizarre plays, has some extreme Andre Drummond vibes going on: you never know if it’s going to be good or bad, but he always ends up generating some sort of chaos.

In all seriousness, House Jr. could definitely benefit from settling down and not attempting some of the ridiculous shots or dribble moves that he wants to pull off. When you have as many creators and shotmakers as this team has, there’s just no need for someone like him to get carried away.

Furkan Korkmaz: Learn how to shoot again, and let the rest come
I never thought I’d have to write this about Furkan, who years ago validated the hype he had received as a young prospect regarding his jumpshot.

Korkmaz shot over 40 percent from beyond the arc on considerable volume in 2019-20, and in the following season shot 37.5 percent on equal volume. But ever since then, something has changed.

Korkmaz was slated to be a critical part of last year’s rotation, as potentially their most reliable offensive bench player. What followed was stunning: he shot considerably below 30 percent from deep last season, and so far this year is at 32.4 percent.

When Korkmaz is at his best, he’s not only giving you value strictly with his three-point shooting, but he also leverages that ability to attack closeouts and confidently become a helpful secondary ball-handler.

If he can just knock down threes at a higher rate again, even more offensive abilities will resurrect themselves.

Matisse Thybulle: Become viable offensively
Everyone knows this is what will determine Thybulle’s fate -- whether he’ll be a star role player or a defensive specialist, whether he’ll be someone who can close games or someone who can’t play in big moments, and whether or not he will be a Sixer by the start of next season, or even by this year’s trade deadline.

Thybulle’s minutes have been sporadic all season, but he has played well recently, and seemingly passed House Jr. in the depth chart while doing so.

Thybulle’s sample size as a three-point shooter has been predictably small, but so far this season he is shooting 35.9 percent from beyond the arc, nothing remotely special but also the highest rate of his career.

On a per-possession basis, Thybulle’s three-point shooting volume is just about in line with what it has been for his entire NBA career. But of course, with larger sample sizes comes more substantial evidence.

The Sixers would absolutely love to have Thybulle’s prodigious defensive abilities help them during a playoff run. But this story is the same as it’s ever been: that won’t happen unless he continues to at least make a decent percentage of his three-point tries.

Montrezl Harrell: Only play with Harden
Harrell has been serving as the Sixers’ backup center for a few weeks now, likely the longest period of time either he or Paul Reed have maintained that spot in the rotation.

I believe Reed should be playing over Harrell because of his youth and potential upside -- Reed could continue to get better, while Harrell is very much a known commodity.

Here’s the thing: when Harrell is in the game, his role is to set screens and roll to the rim while providing energy off the bench. So with that being true, why on earth have many of his recent minutes not come alongside Harden, a wizard ball-handler out of pick-and-roll?

Harden is the sole member of this roster who can actually unlock what makes Harrell a useful player. If Harrell is this team’s backup center for a long period of time, he needs to be attached to Harden at just about all times.

Paul Reed: Stop fouling
As is the case with loads of young bigs, I would say Reed’s biggest issue right now is defensive awareness -- whether it’s maintaining proper defensive positioning or being disciplined, he hasn’t shown much improvement as a defensive player.

In fact, Reed is now averaging a whopping 10.5 fouls per 100 possessions, a brutal number that is easily the worst of his career.

Again, I think Reed should be playing regularly despite these shortcomings. Sometimes the only way for a young player to figure things out is to continually get reps. Reed would likely benefit quite a bit from being trusted on a nightly basis and empowered to make the occasional mistake.

I understand the outrage over Harrell playing more than Reed. But to be fair to Rivers, Reed hasn’t exactly done much to solidify his standing in the rotation so far this season. Aside from a few notably impactful performances, he has had a disappointing year so far.

Jaden Springer: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade
When Springer was drafted, everybody knew he was a developmental project, not someone who would be immediately relied upon to play NBA minutes.

But even while acknowledging that, it’s tough to stomach that in the second year of his career, there is seemingly no realistic pathway for him to get any sort of consequential playing time with the Sixers.

Springer is now in the odd purgatory between being possibly over-qualified to play in the G-League and being under-qualified to play in an NBA rotation. And so, he’s been constantly shuttling back and forth between Philadelphia and Delaware.

Even for someone who knew they wouldn’t see immediate action, this process has to be difficult to undergo. But Springer’s best chance of eventually playing real minutes for the Sixers is embracing his situation as best he can, rather than scoffing at G-League playing time, as some other young Sixers have in recent years.