Five Things You've Been Missing if You Haven't Been Watching the Sixers
The Sixers are 0-11 this season. They’re oh no for their last 21 overall. It’s not pretty. But recently they held their own against the Spurs, and would have snuck by the Mavericks if Nowitzki didn’t go full-Dirk. But there are some positives here, like some facts about the misleading Isaiah Canaan eye-test, T.J. McConnell’s team impact, and … well, that’s it. So let’s see five things you’ve been missing if you haven’t been paying attention to the Sixers.
Isaiah Canaan’s Balls
Let’s start with Isaiah Canaan, one of the most frustrating players on an incredibly frustrating team. Canaan seemingly has the ability to shoot the Sixers into games or right out of them. Part of that is because his shot selection, well, sucks. A majority – 50.5% – of his total shots are “long threes” (25 to 35 feet for the purposes of this portion of our journey). He’s shot 50 of them. He’s like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly, but he actually makes some. One of his makes is barely on StatMuse’s shot chart. Among players who have shot at least 35 long threes, he’s got the fifth-best percentage:
But does he shoot the team out of the game? Depends on how you look at it. He actually shoots much better when the Sixers are within striking distance (six to ten points behind), but when they’re close or far, far behind, he falls off from three-point range. Pressure isn’t his friend:
But there is one surefire positive for those big Canaanballs, and it’s that he’s playing more two guard. When he’s the only ball-handling guard on the floor (no T.J. McConnell or Phil Pressey), he’s shooting 23.7% from the floor and 29.2% from three. With either T.J. or Phil, those numbers hop up to 36% and 39.5%, respectively. With just Pressey, who is all over the place, in a small sample size, Canaan is shooting 58.8% from three-point range (10-for-17). Pressey isn’t as captivating to watch as T.J. McConnell, but you can just call him “PP,” because when you’re not really looking, he just goes everywhere. Also they’re his initials.
Nik Stauskas, Sauceless
Moving on to another “pure shooter,” Sauce Castillo has turned from Hot Sauce to some weird, runny, store-bought mild salsa. You can see he’s 10th on the long-three list above, shooting just under 26%. In the last five games, he’s 9-for-44 (20.5%) from behind the arc. In the last two, he’s 0-for-10. That’s 0%. Everyone who bragged about that Kings trade is doing so a little more quietly right now (but they’re still bragging because of the PICK SWAP).
With shooters, rhythm, confidence, and comfort are important, so you have to let players shoot themselves out of slumps. But with Covington back, you have to figure maybe now is the time to put Sauce back on the shelf until he can figure it out.
Compare his numbers to another frustrating “pure shooter,” Hollis Thompson, and it’s not even close:
T.J. McConnell vs. Everyone Else
Everyone became an immediate T.J. McConnell fan when he first started putting up insane assist numbers. I mean, how can you not love this guy:
GRITTY DAB https://t.co/VlOVUMfv8N
— max (@MaxOnTwitter) November 17, 2015
And this guy:
BASKETBALL pic.twitter.com/ot4cg7I55m
— Liberty Ballers (@Liberty_Ballers) November 17, 2015
The eye test says he makes everyone else on the floor better, but is that true? Yes and no. He makes some players (Nerlens/Jah/Hollis) better while having no or a negative impact on Stauskas, Canaan, and Grant. Let’s see how that all looks using the simplest measure: field goal percentage.
And on the three ball:
Is he the point guard of the future? God I hope not, but he’s cemented his role as the point guard of right this minute, and he’s making Hollis and Nerlens looks expecially good with some easy looks.
How’s Brett Doing?
At this point in the season, it’s nice to do our first check in on Brett Brown and his sanity. The “Sixers may go 0-82” hot takes are already coming down the post-by-numbers pipe, and pace/post balance is becoming a growing pain for the Sixers and Jahlil Okafor.
He’s concerned Stauskas isn’t doing enough on defense, but says he’s still got the green-light on offense. That’s nice.
Brett’s a tough guy, and he knows what he signed up for, but Monday night’s 27 turnovers wasn’t it. Those opening minutes when the Sixers couldn’t hold onto the ball for their lives were the hardest I’ve seen Brown take anything as Sixers coach. “I should just walk off the stage,” Brown said in his post game presser when asked about the turnovers. “What else could I say? In my mature world, this is what I’d say we have to do a better job of executing down the stretch to close out a game. We didn’t against San Antonio and we didn’t tonight. We need to. It’s part of growing up.”
I’m sure Brown sees a lot of his kids in the Sixers, but I hope he takes his frustration out on the pros, before he just keeps it all bottled up inside and takes a long walk off a short pier.
And if he doesn’t, maybe the all-neck Kurt Angle look-a-like they hired as a strength coach will.
The Future
Now it’s time to look ahead. The Lakers are a total mess. Byron Scott might be the worst coach in professional sports. He is currently worse than Flip Saunders. He’s holding D’Angelo Russell hostage on the bench late in the game, while he trots Kobe out to play 30+ minutes. They’re the only team in the league this year that could out-tank the Sixers out of sheer incompetence, and with the Sixers owning the Lakers’ pick, top-3 protected this year, that could be a problem. But if they end up with the pick, who will they look to? The semi-consensus right now is Australian G/F Ben Simmons, who kicked off his season with LSU in spectacular fashion with a 22/9/6/4 line, against a total garbage school. Like the Sixers of no-name college hoops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csp8r5XZTIA
Feel free to start obsessing now.
[All stats from Basketball Reference]