March 05, 2024
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Veteran point guard Kyle Lowry has given the Sixers a significant boost since signing with the team in the buyout market.
The Sixers are in a unique position — their season is sneakily nearing its end, yet most of the team's roster is made up of players who have rarely shared the floor. They are in the midst of an accelerated path towards realizing a team identity. Between there being several key absences — none more significant than Joel Embiid's left knee injury — and a handful of new faces arriving to town, Sixers head coach Nick Nurse is tasked with figuring things out on the fly.
The Sixers have very little chance of making noise in the playoffs if Embiid is not back and at his best. But even if the reigning NBA MVP does return as his best self, this team is far from a lock to be serious championship contenders. However, there are some reasons for optimism that have emerged in recent games.
While the sample size is still relatively small, lineups featuring the Sixers' two best ball-handlers have a tremendous Offensive Rating of 122.2, according to Cleaning the Glass. Nurse made the bold decision to insert Lowry into the starting lineup last week, and so far it has gone swimmingly.
Heading into last month's trade deadline, it felt like the Sixers could really use a heady player who they can rely on to consistently make sound decisions on both ends of the floor. Few players fit that bill better than Lowry, a basketball savant who within a matter of games became one of the team's most vocal leaders on the floor. His reliability has already been a godsend for Nurse, but he has also eased the tremendous burden on the shoulders of Maxey.
When Embiid went down, initially Maxey was given a ridiculous, untenable workload. He was the only consistently viable ball-handler on the roster, and with Tobias Harris slumping, he was the only threat that opposing teams feared when they matched up against the Sixers.
Lowry does add occasional scoring, but his greatest strength — at least on the offensive end of the floor — is creating for others. Lowry's presence generates for Maxey what Nurse has repeatedly called a "change of scenery" instead of constantly having the ball in his hands, the Sixers' first-time All-Star guard can also run around screens and use his movement shooting as a weapon that is terrifying for opposing defenses.
It seemed like a given when Embiid got injured that Reed would be the team's starting center until Embiid returned. But on the same night he inserted Lowry into the starting unit in place of Nic Batum, Nurse moved Reed to the bench in favor of a typical third-stringer in Mo Bamba.
The NBA has started to catch onto the fact that who starts each game is not as relevant as it was once believed to be — finishing games is more important, and actual minutes totals are most crucial. Regardless, benching Reed for a player in Bamba who has largely struggled on both ends was a bold call.
In the two games since the move, Reed still averaged a very healthy 25.7 minutes per game, and he has been excellent in those games: he has scored efficiently, made very few mistakes and protected the rim at a high level. In fact, those two games have arguably been his best performances since the second week of February.
The eye test has suggested that Reed is more comfortable and confident in games where he is not overextended as a starter. What do the numbers say?
| Starter | Reserve |
| 568 minutes | 532 minutes |
| 56.6 TS% | 61.5 TS% |
| 163 rebounds | 173 rebounds |
| Defensive Rating: 117 | Defensive Rating: 111. |
It turns out that just about every statistical measure agrees with anecdotal evidence. The move to start Bamba over Reed felt extremely questionable in the moment. But Nurse may have something here.
Playoff seeding is more important now than it ever was before thanks to the introduction of the NBA's Play-In Tournament. In order to avoid the Play-In Tournament and head straight to the playoffs, a team must be a top-six seed, while seeds seven through 10 have to duke it out for the final two playoff spots.
After the Sixers' step back following Embiid's injury, they are very much at risk of missing out on one of the top six seeds. Aside from the Boston Celtics, who are in a tier of their own at the top of the league, the Eastern Conference is jumbled right now: only 2.5 games separate the fourth-seeded New York Knicks and eighth-seeded Indiana Pacers entering Monday night's play.
The good news for the Sixers as scoreboard-watching commences: their remaining schedule is lighter in terms of strength of opponents than much of their competition, according to Tankathon. Take a look:
| Team (seed) | Record | GB | Remaining SOS |
| (2) Milwaukee Bucks | 40-21 | 8.5 | .555 |
| (3) Cleveland Cavaliers | 39-21 | 9 | .517 |
| (4) New York Knicks | 36-25 | 12.5 | .500 |
| (5) Philadelphia 76ers | 35-25 | 13 | .496 |
| (6) Orlando Magic | 35-26 | 13.5 | .454 |
| (7) Miami Heat | 34-26 | 14 | .450 |
| (8) Indiana Pacers | 34-28 | 15 | .522 |
The most convenient aspect of the Sixers' remaining schedule is how they end their season: of their final five games, three are at home, and four are against projected lottery teams. They have what could be a pivotal matchup against Orlando in their penultimate contest, but their other games to close the season come against the Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons and Brooklyn Nets.
If the Sixers can hang in there and stay afloat until this final stretch, they will have put themselves in a great position.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice
