Ranking The Sixers Players Who Are Under The Most Pressure This Season
This article is Ben Simmons free!
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For this article, I’m stealing a concept from The Athletic’s Eric Koreen, who for the past two years, has written articles before each season ranking the Raptors players by who is facing the most pressure.
Since we’re less than two weeks away from the start of training camp, I figured this would be a good way to shed light on what each player on the roster is facing this year, given that the Ben Simmons situation has dominated the spotlight for the past few months.
Speaking of Simmons, he will not be included in these rankings, primarily because I don’t expect him to be on the team. Obviously, if he is on the team, he is under the most pressure of anyone. Two-way players Aaron Henry and Grant Riller are also not included. OK, let’s begin.
13) Jaden Springer
Jaden Springer could punt the ball into the stands every time it’s passed to him next season, and we would all still say that he is too young to draw any real conclusions. Springer has yet to turn 19, and is still in the infant stages of developing an offensive skill set. His summer league performance was encouraging, but I’m guessing that even a mediocre season in the G-League wouldn’t change the long term perception of him all that much.
12) Danny Green
A two-time champion in an age 34 season is immune to external pressure. There’s not all that much that Danny Green could do this season that would change the broad-scale perception of him. Even if he’s completely washed, he’d still get playing time because of his skill set, and no one would think differently of his career.
11) Georges Niang
Niang could crap the bed this year and it wouldn’t matter. He’s essentially filling a role that was nonexistent on last year’s roster; he replaces Mike Scott, who was already out of the rotation for much of the year. Anything that Niang contributes is gravy, and if it turns out that he sucks, it’s not likely that it’ll matter, or even that he’ll draw much ire at all.
10) Seth Curry
Curry is who he is at this point. He’s such an incredible shooter that we barely criticized him for passing up so many 3s in the first half of last season. With such a concrete identity, plus being such a nondescript personality, it rarely feels like there is any pressure on Curry whatsoever.
9) Furkan Korkmaz
Similar to Curry, Korkmaz has a concrete identity, doesn’t face crazy expectations, and has a down to earth personality that helps keep the amount of criticism he receives to a minimum.
8) Paul Reed
Second year players like Reed inevitably face some degree of pressure. After getting to enjoy a rookie year where nothing was expected of him and he was allowed to mostly be a source of comic relief, Reed now has to prove that he can be a rotation player who can provide an alternative to Andre Drummond at backup center. If Reed proves useless this year, it’s likely that we’ll never see him become a rotation player.
7) Isaiah Joe
Similar sentiments here to Reed. Joe had his one year grace period, and now it’s time to prove that he can provide value on an NBA floor consistently. If he never scrapes the surface of the rotation this year, it doesn’t bode well for his future prospects of doing so.
6) Matisse Thybulle
Now, we start to get to the point where there is some palpable pressure at play. Thybulle is a known commodity on defense, but the lack of development to his jump shot is starting to get to a point where we have to wonder if he’ll ever be a viable starter because of it. Thybulle will turn 25 this year, and we’ve barely seen any improvement to his jumper since college. This year will likely help us decide if Thybulle will ever be a full-time starter, or if he maxes out as a 25-minute-per-game defensive specialist.
5) Tobias Harris
Assuming Simmons is dealt for anything other than a star, the pressure ramps up for Tobias Harris to prove he can be a No. 2 on a team with title aspirations. When Harris was first traded here, he was the fourth and at times fifth option. If he can build off of a strong season last year and up his scoring output, he’ll further quiet the chatter about his contract. If the team disappoints and he proves completely unable to fill that role, he’ll likely generate another apoplectic Mike Levin rant at some point.
4) Tyrese Maxey
I put Maxey this high simply because the expectations for him are so high. Many expect him to be the starting point guard, and presumably build off of a strong end of the season. He has to prove whether or not he’s the real deal, or if the fans’ expectations are far too high.
3) Shake Milton
It has been a truly strange 18 month stretch for Shake Milton. He was billed as the savior of the disastrous 2019-20 team, then had an incredible start to the ‘20-21 season, and then was out of the rotation by the time the playoffs wrapped up. Not only did his performance decline, but his demeanor was often strangely ornery. Milton needs to prove that his hot stretches were more than flashes in the pan. He desperately needs to show consistency this season, and if not, he’ll be out of the rotation once again.
2) Andre Drummond
Simply put, Drummond might be out of the league after this year if he can’t find a role on this team. He was unplayable in L.A., and if he’s the same way here, he’s done. B-Ball Paul essentially has the chance to end his career.
No. 1: Joel Embiid
I wouldn’t call this a legacy defining season for Embiid, but how he and the team fare without Simmons is sure to generate a lot of chatter. The narrative can either become that Simmons was indeed holding Embiid back, and that Embiid was the true engine of the winning all along, or that we undervalued Simmons all along, and that Embiid needs another star in order to play at an MVP level. I think that his standing in the city is strong regardless, but the national perception of Embiid could change drastically depending on which way this season goes.