Pre-Coronavirus Sixers Pros and Cons

Look, it’s not all bad.

[photo: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images]

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He has been legally banned from covering the team in person, but that ban will be lifted in March of 2020. He is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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When Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and the NBA immediately suspended all operations, I think we all had the same feeling: relief. For the time being, we don’t have to watch this torturous team. In a vacuum, that seems like a big win for all of us. But for me, the trouble doesn’t stop. As a diseased person, the hiatuses taking place in every major sports league simply give me more time to think about these godforsaken Sixers. 

It still seems likely that we’ll see basketball again this year, whether it’s with only a postseason or a truncated version of the regular season as well. But for now, I’m reflecting on what I’ve learned about this team’s short- and long-term aspirations over the last six months. Introducing... Sixers Pros and Cons.

Pro: Shake Milton might be good!

This team really dragged their feet towards the league’s suspension, battling injuries to three key players, being overmatched in some matchups and caught off-guard in others. The one clear bright spot of the last month, though, was Shake Milton, who in 10 games averaged 16.5 points shooting an absolutely insane FIFTY-NINE PERCENT ON THREES. This stretch most notably includes his 39-point gem in Los Angeles against the Clippers. But I am just as impressed by how he’s played since turning a corner. Some players may let a hot stretch like this one get to their head and try to do too much, but Shake has continued to do what got him to this point: he’s playing within himself, taking what is given and not making many mistakes. Of course, his three-point shooting will regress; he isn’t the best shooter of all time. But while 59 percent from beyond the arc isn’t sustainable, the ways Shake is generating good shots are. When I wrote about each Sixer heading into the year 2020, I argued that despite diminishing returns thus far, the team should remain patient with Milton because “tall ball-handlers who can shoot threes and have long arms don’t grow on trees.” As we are all seeing now, that kind of player can be immensely valuable. (Note: the next sentence I wrote in that piece was “but you probably shouldn’t be holding out hope for any contributions from him anytime soon,” so don’t listen to everything I say.) So often, this archetype seems more appealing in theory than realistic in practice, but Shake has become what we all hoped of, and it seems like he has etched his name firmly in the future of this team.

Con: Al Horford can’t be a significant piece of this team moving forward

It wasn’t the worst idea anyone has ever had. The Sixers had always dominated with Joel Embiid on the floor, regardless of who his teammates were. They cratered as soon as he hit the bench. Sign the best backup center you can get, right? Well, this one is not exactly panning out the way the Sixers had hoped. The optimist’s take on the Horford signing was that the Sixers would be great with Embiid in the game and decent enough with him out of it; that the move may turn their offense from great to good, but would transform their defense from very good to elite. But the Horford-Embiid lineups have failed to produce, and Horford-centric lineups haven’t exactly been holding their own recently. The offense has been disastrous when Horford, Embiid and Ben Simmons share the floor, and the defense has just been fine. I have no clue who will take on the remaining three years of Horford’s contract after this one, but it’s become abundantly clear that his future should not be in Philadelphia.

Pro: This front office knows how to draft

The Sixers front office has been a punching bag recently -- I took my turn a couple of weeks back -- but they do deserve credit for showing that they can identify valuable role players coming out of college who they can put in a position to succeed. While the draft is a highly complex ordeal, their successful philosophy has been fairly simple when picking at the end of the first round: focus on players who possess an outlier skill. In Landry Shamet, they found a deadeye shooter who could easily be slotted into their offense, first as just a spacer and then more and more frequently as the epicenter of the team’s playbook in a role resembling that of JJ Redick. Obviously the Sixers did not keep him to see that pick through entirely, but it was a clearly a wise selection. And then they looked at the other end of the floor and nabbed Matisse Thybulle in 2019, whose defense, even if inconsistent, is marvelous for a rookie. The front office mostly bungled the draft last summer, but even then, they got their guy in Thybulle, who immediately stepped into an easily-defined role that magnified his strengths and mollified his weaknesses. The Sixers will need to keep adding contributors in the back-end of drafts, so this trend is encouraging.

Con: Josh Richardson might not fit into this puzzle

In the early part of the season, Richardson was my favorite Sixer to watch thanks to his relentless defensive mentality and confidence. But this year hasn’t been what I think a lot of us expected for him. He was supposed to be a defensive stopper and reliable secondary or tertiary creator, even enough to absorb the backup point guard minutes. But Richardson has proved insufficient as a lead ball-handler and underwhelming as an ancillary piece. There’s no doubt he is a positive on the defensive end of the floor, but the offensive punch just isn’t there. That needs to change soon, or else the Sixers should be open to moving Richardson in hopes of finding a reliable offensive player.

Pro: The Sixers have real avenues to upgrade this summer

At times this year, it’s seemed like the Sixers were locked into this group with little wiggle room for adjustment. But thanks to Chris Paul and some good luck, it looks like the Sixers are going to have some assets to work with. The top-20 protected pick Oklahoma City pick was already trending towards conveying to the Sixers, and that is even more true now that we’re looking at what will be a shortened regular season at best. The Thunder are a game and a half ahead of the 20th spot, with no signs of slowing down and now fewer opportunities to drop in the standings. Alongside that, the Sixers will almost certainly have two of the first six picks of the second round, if not better, courtesy of Atlanta and New York. Additionally, they will have access to the taxpayer mid-level exception, projected to be worth just over $6 million (they can give it all to one free agent or split it up among multiple, and contracts signed with this exception can be for as long as three years). They still have the salaries of Mike Scott ($5 million) and Zhaire Smith ($3.2 million), that can be used either individually, or more likely together, to match salary in a deal for a contributor. The picks give them an avenue to add young talent and/or facilitate a Horford trade. The tax MLE and expiring salaries give them avenues to add veterans. For a team that has constantly wasted assets for years now, they have a surprising amount of space to operate.

Con: The Sixers are paying Tobias Harris $180 million to be good

We all like Tobias as a person. He seems perfectly nice and uncontroversial, a welcomed sight on this team. And by all accounts, his locker room presence has been valuable. But for someone who was on the receiving end of a five-year, $180 million contract, he just isn’t that good -- and it should be a cause for concern. Clearly, Harris is a good player in the grand scheme of things. But the Sixers are paying superstar money for not even fringe All-Star production. I touched on it here and AU did here, but I think it’s worth harping on at least one more time. His salary is only going up in the years to come, and there’s no sign of him making any more strides as a player (to be fair, he has already made several since entering the league). I know the word albatross sets off alarm bells in the basketball world, so it shouldn’t be used lightly, but I think that’s where we are.

This should be it for current Sixers coverage from me until the season is resumed. I’m going to have some fun during this down-time -- probably looking back at some classic Process moments or figures as I did last week, maybe a mailbag or two to pass the time, and some other fun stuff. Until then, stay safe!