Breaking Down The Sixers Early Success On Offense And Defense: Can They Keep It Up?

The Sixers are kicking everyone’s asses. This is how.

Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA.

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The Sixers are rolling. Joel Embiid looks like an MVP candidate. Ben Simmons is playing like a DPOY candidate. The early season slander towards Tobias Harris looks like it has ignited him on an incredible tear. 

They are clicking on all cylinders. As of today, they are 14th in offensive rating and 1st in defensive rating. Sure, the schedule has been soft, but their play has been awfully impressive, and quite aesthetically pleasing. Here, I’ll break down a few factors that have led to their excellent start.

The ball movement clinic

Shortly before the season, I tried to do an in-depth comparison of this Sixers’ team to the 2017-18 squad that made it to the second round of the playoffs. So far, that comparison looks pretty solid: they are elite on defense, and have a very solid offense that employs a pass-happy style.

As was the case in ‘17-18, the Sixers are currently leading the league in passes per game by a wide margin. Their ball movement has been flat-out excellent, and I’d argue that this team’s ball movement is even better than the ‘17-18 squad. Whereas that team had a bunch of one-dimensional shooters who were severely lacking in ball handling, this year’s team has players who can attack close-outs and keep the offense humming. With players like JJ Redick and Robert Covington, defenses could very easily run them off the line and bring the offense to a halt..

But with Seth Curry, Danny Green, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton, and others, simply running them off the line won’t help much; the ball keeps on humming.

This sounds like an oversimplification, but it’s not: the Sixers are finally able to capitalize on situations when Simmons and Embiid draw help defenders in ways that they haven’t been in the past -- especially last year, when no one on the team could shoot or dribble. The ability of their role players to attract and beat close-outs is a huge deal, because it means that they aren’t as susceptible to the strategy that took down the ‘17-18 team: simply running the shooters off the line. 

And of course, we have to give credit to the two centerpieces. Simmons and Embiid have been great at finding their outlets when they draw help defenders, and Doc Rivers has done a nice job of setting them up to create those situations. One common theme for Simmons has been that Rivers has tried hard to get him mismatches to post up against, which has produced some positive results. I generally think that they’re over-indulging in the Simmons post-ups, but in situations like these where he’s matched up against small guards, teams are forced to help, and Simmons can capitalize.

Speaking of Simmons, another thing that he’s doing well is setting monster screens when the defense is scrambling off of Embiid post-ups. Given that Simmons has no shooting gravity, he essentially has to make himself useful by standing in the dunker spot and screening the hell out of whoever is closing out to the weak side shooter. This one was a beauty -- he catches two defenders at once to free up Shake Milton. 

Can the defense sustain?

We also must discuss the Sixers’ defensive success, as they rank No. 1 in the league in defensive rating by a considerable margin. Now, I’m skeptical that they’ll continue at that pace -- all but two of their games have been against bottom-six offensive teams -- but they have no doubt been excellent.

As one would expect, it’s Simmons and Embiid leading the way on that end. Harris has had a great start to the year, Curry has been a pleasant surprise, Green has been solid, and the bench has been decent, but Simmons and Embiid are just otherworldly. They may be in direct competition for Defensive Player of the Year.

As I outlined in the preseason, the Sixers are running some more aggressive pick and roll schemes than they have in years past, which has paid dividends. But the surprising part of their defensive success is that their opponent’s shot distribution is not much different from last year. Opponents are taking a remarkably similar percent of shot attempts around the rim (35.2 vs 35.7), and a comparable amount from deep (33.9 vs. 31.5). The single stat that best explains their defensive improvement is this: opponents are making just 54.3 percent of their shots at the rim, compared to 64.7 percent last year. 

It’s mildly shocking how good the Sixers have been protecting the rim, considering the fact that they’re not sacrificing open 3-point attempts in order to pack the paint, which is how teams like Milwaukee and New Orleans like to defend. It is, of course, a massive credit to Embiid as well as Dwight Howard -- when Howard takes the floor, opponents are shooting just 53.4 percent at the rim, compared to 51.8 percent against Embiid. Right now, the Sixers are discovering what an incredible luxury it is to have a competent, rim protecting backup center. It’s extremely encouraging that the Sixers’ rim defense doesn’t fall off a cliff when Embiid leaves the game, which has been the case in previous years. 

(stats courtesy of Cleaning The Glass)

The start has been very, very encouraging, but the real test is about to begin. The Sixers will face Brooklyn, Denver, and Miami (twice) over the next 10 days. At the very least, the biggest thing we can be certain of now is that the Sixers are a solid, watch-able team, which is more than we could say last season. Whatever comes next, we will be sure to have it broken down for you here.