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.
After a heartbreaking loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in double overtime on Saturday night, the Sixers faced a young and inexperienced Orlando Magic team that entered the game with a 4-17 record. Here’s what stood out to me tonight:
Pro: Seth Curry, always reliable
To be honest, there wasn’t much positive to take away from this Sixers performance. They came out strong but quickly turned flat and failed to bury an Orlando team that was begging to be blown out. They let Orlando hang around for far too long.
Here’s where I spin this into a positive: the Sixers would not have won this game if not for an early barrage of jumpers from Curry, including a big corner three late in the game. Frankly, nobody other than Curry showed up tonight. He led the Sixers in scoring on a night where they really needed him to come through.
Con: Poor lineups handicap Sixers
As any long-time reader knows, I pay a great deal of attention to coaches’ substitution patterns and the lineups they generate.
Generally speaking, I think Doc Rivers has done a good job crafting his rotation since arriving in Philadelphia. But as of late, the Sixers are giving avoidable minutes to some wonky lineups that have not been yielding positive production, specifically on the offensive end.
At the heart of the issues I am finding are Matisse Thybulle and Andre Drummond.
Thybulle, of course, is an elite defensive player, but has had massive struggles on the offensive end during his career. He’s a poor shooter who should never be handling the ball. His incredible athleticism leads to a flashy dunk every now and then, but on the whole, he is a liability on that side of the floor.
Drummond, who has been perfectly fine in his role as Joel Embiid’s backup center, does have a few weaknesses. The biggest is his lack of utility offensively. Aside from offensive rebounds, putbacks and dunks, he doesn’t offer much. His inability to pose any threat as a jump-shooter severely damages the team’s spacing.
So, here’s where the main issue comes into play: Thybulle’s negative contribution to floor spacing makes him a poor fit offensively with Embiid, who frequents the low-post and can become susceptible to hard double-teams when sharing the floor with someone like Thybulle.
But trying to avoid lineups featuring Embiid and Thybulle is a lot more difficult than it sounds. That’s because it means you must play Thybulle and Drummond together. As helpful as those guys are as role players, pairing them together offensively is a recipe for disaster. Tonight, Thybulle + Drummond minutes were predictably disastrous offensively.
It will be fascinating to see how Rivers deploys Thybulle throughout the year related to which bigman is in the game. We’ll see if tonight’s performance has any impact on the situation.
Con: Tyrese Maxey’s cold streak continues
Maxey was far and away the shining star of the Sixers’ west coast trip. But of late, he’s struggled quite a bit.
Maxey entered tonight shooting 34.6 percent from the field over his last three games, and had another game of very inefficient offense tonight, going just 2-12 from the field. He was able to create for his teammates some, but the self-creation that we’ve come to know and love hasn’t quite been there.
Frankly, this is appropriate considering Maxey’s age and experience. Going from the center of a relatively heliocentric offense to someone whose main job is to set the table for others is a difficult challenge, especially for someone like Maxey, who is still learning how to play the point guard position.
Maxey is still an incredible prospect who fans should be very excited about. But every young player has to overcome obstacles. Maxey’s seem to have arrived.