6 Things the Sixers Could Do Right Now to Immediately Improve
MOC fixes the Sixers (not really but maybe but also no) in six easy steps.
Given that the Sixers are 4-14, it’s possible that a lot of these points become useless in a few weeks – this season may be beyond saving, and in a few weeks, I may be writing an article titled “6 Things the Sixers Could Do Right Now to Help Them Tank.”
But for now, while we all hold out hope that this season can still be turned around, I think it’s worth discussing what the Sixers could do to right the ship and improve their playoff hopes. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit here, and I think that most of these are no-brainers.
Fill their 15th roster spot with a free agent veteran power forward
It’s surprising to me how little discussion there’s been about the fact that the Sixers have an open roster spot right now. If you ask Daryl Morey for his rationale on this, he’d likely say that he wants to keep an open spot for the buyout market later in the season. There’s also likely a desire to save costs coming from ownership.
Thing is, we’re still a long way away from the buyout market, and the season could very well be over by then. Plus, there are a number of names walking around as free agents that fill the Sixers’ biggest need – size at the power forward position.
Marcus Morris is a free agent, and was a legitimately useful rotation player for the Sixers just last season. Hell, even Danuel House gave the Sixers some sporadically decent run last year, and he’s a free agent. If they think Robert Covington’s knee could hold up for even a 1-2 month stretch, they should absolutely sign him.
Even former Sixer Thaddeus Young could be of use; he was still kicking in 10 solid minutes per game in Toronto and Phoenix last year. If the Sixers wanted to take a chance on someone younger who might find a home for more than just this season, Keita Bates-Diop or Lamar Stevens would be interesting names.
I realize that none of these names are particularly exciting. But if there’s even a 40 percent chance that any of these guys could give you 10-15 solid minutes per game, that is absolutely a risk worth taking – if it can manage to steal them one or two wins on the margins, it might actually be enough to save the Sixers season. Remember the Corey Brewer stretch in 2019? What if they luck into something like that?
Release two of their two-way players and sign two big wings out of the G-League
A major theme here, in case you can’t tell already, is that the Sixers desperately need some size and athleticism in their front court. They are catastrophically small, and it’s killing them in every facet of the game. If there’s anything to be learned by the Sixers’ slight improvement over the last few games, it’s that playing the younger, more athletic role players, and turning to the bigger lineups, is a better formula for success than the 3-4 guard lineups they’d been playing for much of the season.
And here’s the thing: we kind of knew this might be a problem heading into the season. So, that begs the question of why the hell the Sixers decided to sign three two-way players who are all below 6-foot-6? Shouldn’t they be taking chances on young players who at least have the opportunity to fill a need?
If I were Daryl Morey, I’d drop Justin Edwards and Lester Quiñones tomorrow and pick out two interesting young wings from the G-League to replace them. Hell, the Sixers have Darius Bazley right there on their G-League team, and he started 53 games for Oklahoma City just a few years ago!
Between not filling the final roster spot and having three completely useless two-way players, the Sixers have massively failed on the margins this year. Would Darius Bazley and Marcus Morris have made the Sixers a .500 team? Hell no. Would they have been a very real improvement over having to play tons of four-guard lineups? Hell yes!
Start playing Guerschon Yabusele major minutes at the four
If they’re not going to sign anyone, the least they could do is play Guerschon Yabusele – currently playing just 23 minutes per game, 77 percent of which have come at center – major minutes at the four. He has proven to be more than capable as a shooter and defender to handle significant minutes there. In these stretches without Embiid and Paul George, Yabusele has been undoubtedly their third best player behind Maxey and McCain. We’ve seen enough – play Yabu at the four. He can still be the third-string center while also playing 20-plus minutes per game at power forward.
By the way: do you know who has played the most minutes at power forward for the Sixers this season, according to Cleaning the Glass? Kelly Oubre, Jr. He has played more than three times as many possessions at the four than Guerschon Yabusele has. I’m sorry, but that’s a complete joke and total malpractice by Nick Nurse, and it needs to stop.
Bench Eric Gordon
If you’re going to play a ton of small-ball lineups, you have to at least be able to switch on defense, make open shots, and be a reliable slasher and passer on offense. Eric Gordon has done none of those things, least of all make open shots – he’s shooting a gnarly 25 percent from deep on the season. He might not be totally cooked, but he needs to have his ass glued to the bench until Embiid is back and he starts attracting double teams again. Especially with McCain’s emergence, there’s no real need to play Gordon.
Grow up and run an actual NBA offense
This one stands the least chance of happening, but Nick Nurse desperately needs to introduce more structure and more set plays to the Sixers’ offense. It’s maddening watching them run their same Flip DHO or weave play 15-20 times per game; cut a few of those out and run some actual set plays instead. I’m not asking for rocket science here – just introduce a few pet plays for Maxey and some off-ball shooter sets for McCain.
Remember back when JJ Redick was here, how Brett Brown based so much of their offense around using Redick as a screener? I’m not sure I’ve seen McCain set one off-ball screen this year. The fact that Nurse has two guards as dynamic as Maxey and McCain, and does absolutely nothing schematically to take advantage of their skills, is malpractice. I don’t hate running a loosely structured offense when your team has elite talent, but right now, with this roster, we need to see some actual NBA offense.
Trade for Cam Whitmore
The Sixers are currently extremely limited in what they can do in trades, due to the fact that none of the players they signed this off-season can be traded until at least December 15th (K.J. Martin can’t be traded until January 15th), so the only players they could target for now would be low-salary players.
And I think the perfect candidate there is Cam Whitmore. Whitmore, a 6-foot-7, 20 year old wing, is currently buried on Houston’s bench behind their bevy of young wings, and he makes just $3.3 million this year. He’s got good size, is somewhat skilled, and has otherworldly athleticism. Think of him as a bigger, more skilled Ricky Council. He’d be an incredible breath of fresh air, and obviously, he’s young enough to where he’d have value whether this season falls apart or not.
In the summer of 2023, Daryl Morey did a radio interview where he vaguely alluded to the Sixers trying to trade up to acquire Whitmore in the draft.
“There was another prominent player who fell in this year’s draft that we were trying to move up for,” Morey said. “I couldn’t understand why they were falling, because I’ve seen him play live multiple times here in town.” (Obviously, given that Whitmore played locally at Villanova, and that he fell unexpectedly in that draft, it’s likely that Morey was talking about him.)
I don’t know for sure that the Rockets plan on trading him, but it certainly would make sense given that all of their other wings who are ahead of him in the pecking order are also locked into long term deals. If he’s available, I’d happily trade a couple of the Sixers’ lowest-paid players along with a few second round picks for Whitmore.
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.
Solid article, agreed with all of it. What struck me is that almost all of these ideas involved shuffling around minimum contracts. The front office hit on two vet minimum guys last year (Kelly and Pat Bev) and talked themselves into making that their entire strategy.
I come into these articles trying to disagree so I’m not in an echo chamber but MoC raises some legitimate points that would inject some life into the team for the sake of the team and the fans watching.