Sixers: Playing the Role of Dream Makers

By Sean Kennedy

With NBA All-Star Weekend behind us, and the highest-scoring All-Star game in history reminding us of a typical Sixers game (at least from the opponent’s perspective), let’s take a look back at the first half of the year for Philadelphia. Specifically, with opposing players having record-breaking games from behind the arc seemingly every night, I wanted to examine just how bad the Sixers have been at perimeter defense. It’s no secret that Brett Brown instilled a philosophy to pack the paint, masking the lack of interior shot-blockers on the roster, at the expense of allowing open shots from the outside. However, it seemed at times that Sixers players were about as defensively useless out there as the ball racks during the three-point shootout.

As it turns out, Sixers’ opponents have shot 36.8% from three against them so far this season. That mark isn’t great, but is only the 9th-worst in the NBA, better than you might have expected after watching 39 Sixers losses. Instead, with Philadelphia playing at easily the fastest pace in the league at over 102 possessions per 48 minutes, it’s been mainly the sheer of volume of shots going up that have made viewers feel whiplash from all the rainmakers falling through for the other teams.

The Sixers are actually 10th-best in the NBA at defending the corner three (37.2%), which is not surprising given Brett Brown’s Spurs background and the inherent value that organization places on both taking and taking away that shot. Still, even with that solid defense, by pure totals, the Sixers have given up the most corner threes in the league, 58 more than the next team.

One area they have actually been awful at is what NBA.com classifies as the Above the Break three, where they’re third-worst in the NBA at 36.9%, and again, have the most threes made against. That stat makes sense if you think back on Sixers games so far this season; countless times we’ve seen the Sixers make that first rotation to the corner, but more disciplined opponents make the extra pass to a wide-open teammate and the secondary rotation is non-existent for Philadelphia.

So the Sixers’ three-point defense has been better than you might have anticipated overall. Nevertheless, seemingly every game Marc Zumoff and Malik Rose were discussing some player setting a new high against Philadelphia from downtown. In fact, there have actually been 18 instances of a player tying or setting a season-high against the Sixers so far this season (only looking at 3 or more made threes to avoid a small sample size). On 6 of those occasions, the total was actually a career-high for the opposing player (denoted in red).

While the Sixers aren’t quite as abysmal as defending the three as anticipated, thanks mainly to their pace of play, they’ve made a habit of playing the role of dream makers for the opposition. It wouldn’t surprise me if players had contests against the Sixers circled on the calendar; C.J. Miles’ 10-three performance will probably be Exhibit A for his offseason free agent contract negotiations. With the trade deadline on the horizon, we don’t know exactly what will be in store for the Sixers, but one things is for sure, plenty of careers will continue to be made against them in the process.