The Sixers are at the one-month point of their 2024-25 regular season schedule. The first chapter of their journey has been... unpleasant.
For this week's Sunday stats, let's take a look at some of the numbers which have defined the team's 3-12 opening to a season it entered with championship aspirations:
21
The total number of combined games played by Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey (out of a possible 45).
The Sixers have issues across their entire roster — this will be explored momentarily — and none of their three All-Stars have been close to their best selves when on the floor. But, ultimately, Embiid, George and Maxey's collective lack of consistent availability has been the largest hinderance preventing the team from winning games. Going all-in on a "Big 3" of stars in today's NBA means sacrificing depth to an extreme degree — therefore creating additional pressure on those stars to carry the load.
Recent Sixers injury updates
29.0 percent
The combined three-point percentage of Caleb Martin and Kelly Oubre Jr., two of four Sixers to appear in every game.
Martin and Oubre were slated to be the two defensive aces on the wing starting in between the Sixers' trio of ball-dominant stars. Martin came off the bench during the team's first game, but has started every game since. Oubre recently moved to the bench, but quickly returned to the starting five when George went down again.
For any role player surrounding high-profile talents — especially a wing — being accurate as a three-point shooter is more important than anything else on offense. Martin (31.1 percent on 3.0 three-point attempts per game) and Oubre (27.7 percent on 4.3 three-point attempts per game) have been the opposite of that.
If Eric Gordon is added to the mix, this figure goes down even further, which is even more alarming because long-range shooting is Gordon's lone reliable skill at this stage of his career. Martin will always provide tenacious defense across multiple positions, Oubre will always be a reliable option on that end of the floor while also being able to apply pressure on the rim.
Then there is Gordon, whose physical limitations prevent him from consistently creating separation off the dribble. The veteran sharpshooter's 24.3 three-point percentage is abysmal; the Sixers need it to skyrocket in order for him to be a viable rotation player moving forward.
42.5 percent
The combined three-point percentage of the other two Sixers to appear in every game, Guerschon Yabusele and Jared McCain.
Two players on this team have outperformed expectations through 15 games, and they have each done so by enormous amounts.
Yabusele was the last player the Sixers signed to a standard contract during the offseason. He was thought to be an interesting change-of-pace option at power forward, with a chance to be a fringe rotation piece in certain matchups if the improvements he made as a three-point shooter overseas carried over to his NBA return.
After a month, Yabusele has still not played many minutes at the four — but he looks like the Sixers' best option at center when Embiid is sidelined. His jumper is as real as it gets: Yabusele has made 42.4 percent of his long-range tries on the season, attempting nearly four triples per game despite averaging 21.8 minutes per contest.
The confidence Yabusele holds in his refined shooting stroke is palpable, and he has adhered to the advice of his coaches to stay ready to fire away at all times. It has all coalesced to pay dividends in a major way.
Let McCain's 42.7 three-point percentage on 5.9 attempts per game — and his active streak of nine consecutive games with at least three made triples — serve as another example of why outlier shooting numbers in a handful of Summer League games should not be taken seriously.
There is a ton to say about McCain — so much that the next section of this very story will be focused solely on the dynamic rookie guard — but it is worth acknowledging that he always profiled as an elite three-point shooter, which figured to give him a reasonable floor as a quality rotation guard. He has somehow shot the ball even better than expected, though, while also flourishing as a scorer in other areas of the floor.
If the Sixers can get their stars healthy and playing at the levels they typically perform at — this is, of course, an enormous "if" — McCain's emergence as a plus-starter making a hair over $4 million in the first season of a four-year rookie scale contract completely changes the long-term thinking of this front office as it looks to craft a sustainable winner.
MORE: Yabusele talks NBA return, influence of Nico Batum
66.8 percent
McCain's true shooting percentage during his active eight-game streak of 20-plus point games.
Even if the torrid stretch McCain is in the midst of has stood out, he is not the first rookie to rattle off a string of gaudy point totals. But make no mistake, this is not a "good stats, bad team" situation, despite the Sixers' record. McCain is not another Michael Carter-Williams, posting strong box score lines on a team that is losing games. This true shooting percentage mark is as good of an indicator of that as you will find.
For those unfamiliar, 66.8 true shooting percent is absolutely phenomenal — 57.3 is the league average in 2024-25 as of Saturday.
I'll put it this way: as a 20-year-old rookie with the total number of games under his belt as a professional basketball player still in the single-digits, McCain saw three All-Stars go down with injuries, assumed significant scoring responsibilities which quickly became primary ball-handling duties, leading to 18 shot attempts per game — and with all of that working against him, his overall efficiency has been nearly 20 percent better than the average NBA player.
There are no words to properly describe or quantify how impressive this run is. The Sixers found gold in the 2020 NBA Draft when they drafted Maxey at No. 21 overall and watched him turn into an All-Star. They say lightning does not strike twice, but the Sixers may have repeated their success by selecting McCain with the No. 16 overall pick last June.
MORE: McCain + Maxey developing on- and off-court bonds, powering exciting partnership
1,751
The total number of minutes allotted to Sixers with a Box Plus-Minus of -3.0 or worse as of Saturday, per basketball-reference: Martin, Oubre, Andre Drummond, Gordon, Ricky Council IV, Reggie Jackson, Jeff Dowtin Jr.
That number makes up 47.9 percent of all minutes played by any Sixers players during the regular season. The Sixers' depth has been challenged in every which way during these first 15 games, and it has failed nearly every test. But again, this is to some degree a byproduct of the team's preferred method of roster construction: assemble a core of stars and figure out how to optimize everything around it afterwards.
There is clear upward mobility here: Martin spent three years as a high-quality rotation wing for the Miami Heat, and has made significant steps in the right direction recently (he does still need to figure out whatever is going on with his shooting mechanics, though). Oubre was a positive-impact player for significant chunks of the season for the 2023-24 Sixers. Drummond's minutes have waned; his production on a per-minute basis should trend in the positive direction.
Still, this is a truly harrowing figure. It does not reflect well on veterans Gordon and Jackson, nor does it help owners of stock in the development of Council, the second-year fan favorite wing who is dead last among all Sixers in BPM.
Sometimes, it's really this simple: the Sixers do not have enough people on their team who have looked like good NBA players to consistently win NBA games.
Follow Adam on Twitter: @SixersAdam
Follow PhillyVoice on Twitter: @thephillyvoice