An open letter to the Philadelphia 76ers
To the Philadelphia 76ers Organization,
Sorry for your recent loss to the Boston Celtics. I actually predicted that you would win this one, I’m so pretty confident that I had to post it on Facebook. But then again, it was a disappointing loss. You were actually in it for three and a half quarters then all hell breaks loose. You know that “almost” will never get you a win in this league, right?
Honestly, your team is not built to win. You know you have a bad team when you’re last in point production per game. Your team is only averaging 88.5 points per game and having 19.7 turnovers. Even the injury plagued Oklahoma City, who is missing almost the upper half of its roster, is still better than you in producing points.
Your offensive sets have been in total disarray this season. I can’t even remember any offensive sets you have run during the games you have already played. While your offense is clearly not that good, your defense has not getting any better. You are giving up 105 points to your opponent every night. That’s a 17-point differential that you are giving up every night. Move that ball and find the open man. Make the game simpler.
You know you have a bad team when your starting point guard is leading your team in rebounds. Yes, that’s your starting POINT GUARD. I know that it’s only four games that Michael Carter-Williams has played since coming back from his injury, but it’s just a shame that MCW is surrounded by 6-10 or 6-11 guys and still he’s the one who is getting those rebounds. Your big guys should at least make an effort to secure those rebounds.
What do you do if you’re one of the league’s worst rebounding team? Gang rebound! Every guy you put in the floor should make an effort to secure that ball once that ball is off the rim. Box-out every opponent who is there to contest for a possible rebound. You have a lot of wide bodies out there; make the most of them.
You know you have a bad team when you’re blown out on a regular basis. Getting blown out by 53 by those Mavs is just ridiculous. While the Mavs are just beating you up and just breaking team records after another, there you are almost breaking your own worst in franchise history. And oh, before that game, you’re also blown out by the Raptors by 32.
You can’t just let teams bully you around. You have put a gallant effort against the Rockets and that’s a good sign. But you have to compete very hard on a regular basis. Having off-nights will never be an issue if the effort will be there.
You know you have a bad team when you keep drafting players that are hurt. For two years in a row now, you have drafted rookies that just can’t make it to the season because of injuries. Yes, Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel are prospects that have a lot of potential, I’ll give you that. But why draft them in if they can’t even help your team? I see what you are pushing through in building your team around with young and raw talents, but having to suffer like this just isn’t worth the wait.
Since the glory days of Allen Iverson, you haven’d quite had that significant year to show. A few 8th seeded playoffs appearance is something you can’t brag about, because you’re on the eastern conference. Building a young group is not a bad idea, but at least surround them with enough veteran leadership on and off the court. This will help your young team to know what it’s like to win in the NBA. In this way, they will have a leader that they can look up to.
And certainly you have a bad team if you have to start the year with a 0-11 record to show. You are now 7 games from tying the worst start in NBA history. While you are certainly getting frustrated to get a win, I know for sure that you are making the effort to do so. As Carter-Williams said, you are not playing just to lose.
At the end of the day, you have to understand that you have a bad, really bad team. Your management has to do something with this. You have to make the decisions and push the right buttons. I feel that you should press the panic button now. You have a lot of individual talents but just can’t complement one another to make a cohesive team. Maybe it’s time to trade to maybe change the structure of the team.
The season is still young. But it’s very clear that you have a lot of work to do to turn this thing around. Hopefully, you can.