What will 2024-25 Sixers be able to depend on?

What will 2024-25 Sixers be able to depend on? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The 2024-25 Sixers will begin training camp on Oct. 1 in the Bahamas.

As that date approaches, we’ll dive into several significant topics for the team in Nick Nurse’s second season as head coach.

First up: What will the Sixers be able to depend on? 

The Sixers are accustomed to volatile swings in fortune, Joel Embiid injury woes and serious roster shakeups. Through it all, they’ve been a very good regular-season team since the 2017-18 campaign at 347-208 overall (62.5 winning percentage).

It’s still felt at times like the Sixers can’t count on much, especially in the playoffs. For this year, our pre-camp read is that the following three areas should be relatively reliable.

Prolific scoring by the stars 

Joel Embiid averaged more points than minutes per game last regular season. He scored 50 points on 13-for-19 shooting in the Sixers’ Game 3 playoff win over the Knicks. In Game 5, Tyrese Maxey dropped 46. Paul George is now part of a Sixers star trio.

Will the Sixers be capable of working around some subpar outside shooting performances from their top players? George hasn’t drawn heaps of foul shots in recent years and Maxey is still figuring out the nuances of when to actively seek out contact and when to focus solely on finishing inside. However, Embiid’s foul drawing often helps to mitigate slumps. He’s shot 11.7 free throws per game over the past three seasons and the Sixers ranked third in free throw rate last year as a team, per Cleaning the Glass.

On most nights, the Sixers should be comfortable leaning on their stars’ many offensive gifts.

Safe decision-making 

While Nurse will encourage Maxey to play an even speedier, more aggressive style, the 23-year-old is a habitually low-turnover player. He committed over three turnovers in just six games last regular season and his 6.6 turnover percentage was lowest among NBA point guards.

The Sixers had the NBA’s best turnover percentage outside of garbage time in the 2023-24 season and none of their offseason pickups should hurt them badly in that…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/2024-25-sixers-able-depend-182327514.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2024-09-09 18:23:27

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