Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant spoke out about the 76ers’ superteam built this offseason. Durant likened the 76ers’ roster to the Warriors’ title-winning team he joined after leaving OKC.
“The last time they put three 20-point scorers on a team, they said it was unfair. That was the Warriors team I was on,” Durant said at a USA Basketball event on Saturday.
“The 76ers have got four 25-point scorers on this team. So, hell yeah, I think they’re going to be a contender. They’re going to be a fun team to watch. It’s going to be League Pass-worthy.”
“I didn’t know at all,” Durant said on LeBron’s move to Philadelphia “LeBron is stealth like that. I know there’s a lot of noise around him, but you never know what’s on his mind. I’m happy for him.
“It’s a great decision for him to go to a team that has a good chance to win. Philly is a great fanbase, a great market, and it’s great for the league. There were so many eyes that were tuned in to his decision.”
LeBron is looking to become the first NBA player to win a championship with four different franchises. If the GOAT were to be successful in this, he would also be bringing a ring back to Philly for the first time since 1983. That is somehow older than LeBron himself.
76ers Offensive Monster Roster
Brown, Embiid and Maxey all averaged at least 25 points per game last season, with VJ Edgecombe averaging 16ppg on 43% shooting in his rookie year. With VJ showing signs of exponential growth for the foreseeable future, those 16ppg can and will likely become 20 a night. Now, with the addition of the GOAT, the 76ers have four of their five starters averaging over 20ppg last season, plus a young guard with explosive downhill power. And an improvable 3-point shot.
How Can the 76ers Get the Best Out of Everyone?
One way would be to prioritise both the pick-and-roll and the pick-and-pop. As a roll man, Jaylen Brown averages a point per screen, which puts him in the 28th percentile.
Compared to VJ, Brown will need to improve in this area. In his rookie year, VJ averaged 1.21 points per roll, which has him in the 70th percentile and above Jaren Jackson Jr. Both Embiid and LeBron average 1.05 points per pick-and-roll, and as such rank inside the top 60 percentiles compared to others in the league.
Tyrese Maxey averages just under one point and calls pick-and-rolls 28.5% of the time. This ranks him inside the top 25% of NBA players for pick-and-rolls. As for VJ, he ranks in the bottom 30th percentile with just 0.73 points per possession when he requests a screen.
However, the 76ers won’t need to solely rely on the on-ball screens. They rarely used off-ball screens for Maxey, Embiid or VJ, but when they did, it worked well. Maxey finished the season in the top 20th percentile with 1.19ppp when coming off-ball screens.
Embiid also showed his ability to utilise his range to get 1.27ppp from the off-ball screens. This ranked him in the top 15th percentile among all NBA players with a minimum of 10 min/game and 10 possessions per play type.
If all else fails, then a simple iso can be called to almost guarantee buckets. Jalen Brown called an iso 20% of the time last season with the Celtics and averaged 1.01ppp from them on a 47.2% success rate. VJ also showed off his confidence in the iso game, shooting 39.8% on his 9.6 attempts per game. Both he and Maxey averaged just under 1 point per possession and showed that they can get buckets from those situations. LeBron shot 42.6% in isolation situations and averaged 0.93 points per isolation.
Joel Embiid will be relied upon more than ever on the offensive glass, as his 75th percentile work on putbacks will need to increase. Pat Spencer currently ranks higher in frequency of putbacks and percentile, but stats can’t always tell the full story.
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