The Sixers are 4-0! The vibes are immaculate, as Quentin Grimes said. V.J. Edgecombe looks like a star. Tyrese Maxey is playing like an MVP candidate. Joel Embiid is back to putting up more points than minutes played. Young players that the Sixers signed on the margins like Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker are showing promise. Jared McCain and Paul George are on track to return soon. Everything is coming up aces for this team – I can’t even believe it!
Let’s get into some key takeaways from their electrifying start.
The vibe shift from last year
Unless you’re a true sicko who watched every game last season, you probably can’t really appreciate how different this year feels compared to last year. Yes, the Sixers are 4-0, which is remarkable in and of itself – they didn’t notch their 4th win until November 30th last season – but even if a couple of these fourth quarters had gone the other way, it’d still be undeniable that the Sixers are a more fun, resilient, likable group than they were last year. All I’ve asked for in recent years is for the Sixers to be exactly that, and they finally are. I feel like a proud father.
Personnel changes are largely to thank, of course. Inserting V.J. Edgecombe and Quentin Grimes into what were Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon’s spots in the rotation at this time last year has been a massive injection of physicality and overall vitality. But I think it’s important to give credit to the franchise cornerstones who were here last year and made an effort to change the culture.
Tyrese Maxey has been the ringleader there; the fact that he spoke this into existence at media day is pretty remarkable. But it’s also been noticeable that Nick Nurse and Joel Embiid are happier, less doomer-y, and more engaged on a day-to-day basis.
I don’t have a ton of analysis to provide on this front, I just want to give a ton of credit where it is due. This does not happen very often in sports; generally, when a team becomes completely and utterly miserable, that doesn’t change until you blow up the roster. For the Sixers to have taken the misery of last year and used it to establish a real culture and identity moving forward – I just can’t say enough good things about everyone involved.
The Maxey-Edgecombe-Grimes synergy
One of the bold predictions that I made last week which I’ve already gained confidence in is that the Sixers’ best lineup combination at the 1-2-3 spots will be Maxey, Edgecombe, and Grimes. Those lineups are absolutely destroying opponents through three games – the Sixers are +33.3 per 100 possessions (albeit in only 132 possessions) with those three on the floor together.
The biggest key to their success offensively is the fact that Edgecombe and Grimes are so elite at capitalizing the attention that Maxey generates with the ball. I think it’s pretty poetic that this was Edgecombe’s first bucket in the NBA – he is so slippery and so explosive with the ball that he’s able to punish even the slightest degree of gap help from opposing defenses. Even without being an elite jump shooter, you still can’t leave him without the ball, or he’ll maneuver his way into a driving lane with ease.
Grimes and Edgecombe are both elite connectors. They close gaps and manipulate space at a really high level. Defenses are forced to choose between leaving someone fully on an island with Maxey, or send enough help to force a pass, which results in high quality looks for Grimes.
All off-season long, I begged for more offensive structure from Nick Nurse. Truth be told, there has been some, but not a ton of improvement there. The fact is that most of the Sixers’ improvement on offense has come from the fact that they can finally leverage the attention that their stars get, whereas last year most of these possessions resulted in players like Lowry, Gordon, or Caleb Martin getting walled off on drives and failing to collapse the defense.
Again, that’s not a critique. The Sixers have the No. 1 ranked offense in the league through four games. That may very well change, but their start to the season on that end of the floor has been excellent, and in my opinion, pretty sustainable. It’s also important to note that they have a couple of key weapons they’ll have the chance to integrate very soon. Which brings me to my next point…
The challenge ahead for Nick Nurse
Some of the discourse around Paul George and Jared McCain returning has been pretty dumb – they are obviously going to play major minutes and they will help the team considerably. Just because the team is playing excellent basketball doesn’t mean you should think twice about adding two very good, very versatile players back into your rotation. But I do think that it’s important to lay out the fact that their return will represent a legitimate challenge for Nick Nurse, and one that he failed miserably last season.
That challenge is the following: George and McCain need to feel additive when they return. They need to find ways to mesh with the team’s current offensive structure and make life easier for everyone else. They can’t just feel like two extra mouths that need feeding.
That might sound simple, but it wasn’t the case last season. Last year, Nurse simply did not find ways to make these two guys all that useful without the ball. He mostly tried to turn both players into one-on-one creators, substituting them in place of Embiid or Maxey when one of their two stars wasn’t running the offense. And if he tries to do that again this year, it will feel as though there are not enough basketballs to go around.
After McCain and George are back, we should all be marveling at how much easier life gets for Maxey, Embiid, Edgecombe and Grimes. The offense should feel even more cohesive and free-flowing. That is precisely what George and McCain would bring to the other 29 teams!
I may be overly concerned about this because of how ugly last year’s offense got, but it’s a lesson that Nurse has to prove that he has learned. I’m really asking for simple stuff. Run these guys off of pin-downs! Have them set tons of screens off the ball! Literally, turn on a Golden State Warriors game, diagram three of Steph Curry’s pet plays, and run them for McCain. This is simple stuff!
I’m not concerned by the difficulty of the concept, I’m concerned that Nurse will make it more complicated than it needs to be, because that’s what he did last year. The early-season returns from the offense look good – if he manages to keep that up when the team is at full strength, I’ll feel fully at ease.
The backup center minutes
For the first time in his entire career (albeit only on a four-game sample), the Sixers are playing better basketball with Joel Embiid off the floor versus when he is on. They are +13.3 points per 100 possessions with him off, and -11.1 with him on. Both Adem Bona and Andre Drummond are winning their minutes – the Sixers are +18.2 with Bona at center, and +3.8 with Drummond.
Again, it’s only been four games, and history tells us that these numbers will change, if not fully reverse. But I do think that it’s worth discussing the center rotation in general and how the minutes should be allocated.
Assuming Embiid continues to play 20-25 minutes per game in the immediate future, I think it’s perfectly reasonable to have Drummond and Bona split the remaining minutes. Both provide sparks in unique ways, and considering Bona’s fouling habits and hit-or-miss defense, he’ll need Drummond to spell him for a stretch or two each game.
Drummond returning to life after being legitimately one of the worst players in the NBA last season is a very welcome development. He has stretches, like last week’s fourth quarter against Charlotte, where his rebounding completely changes a game. Having that as a weapon off the bench is valuable for the Sixers.
Similarly, Bona’s ability to go on shot-blocking sprees in a game-wrecking quality that the Sixers have seldom had. The injection of life that it gives the Sixers – especially when it frees up transition offense opportunities, like against Orlando and Washington – is palpable. A Bona block into a Maxey-Edgecombe fast break is one of the more electrifying parts of the Sixers experience.
Overall, I still have some concerns about both Bona and Drummond. I’ll need to see that Drummond can hold up physically, and that Bona can be an above-average decision maker on defense, rather than just an explosion of blocks for a few minutes at a time, before declaring that either one has the advantage in this battle for the team’s C2. Still, I think you’d have to say this is the best backup center rotation the Sixers have had since at least 2022. The fact that they are finally winning the minutes without Embiid is a massive, massive deal.
Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA. Mike’s writing is brought to you by Body Bio, supplements based on science, focusing on your gut and brain health.