We're about a quarter of the way through the 2019-20 NBA season. Here are some facts, not excuses, about the Philadelphia 76ers—who seemed to be getting constantly criticized, locally, after every loss or bad performance.
Success
Despite the noise—anger of Ben Simmons' "lack of progression" (we'll get to this later), Joel Embiid's poor decision making, Tobias Harris' streaky shooting, Brett Brown's bad coaching, etc.—the Sixers are 10-0 at home for the second straight season, for the first time in franchise history, 15-6 overall and just 3.0 games back of the 18-3 Bucks—the current No. 1 seed in the East.
Furthermore, the Sixers have lost just one game by double-digits and that was a road back-to-back at Orlando without Embiid. They also lost early in the season at Utah and at Denver in back-to-back games by a combined five points without Simmons.
Not yet fully health
The good news: The Sixers are 15-6 (and 10-0 at home) while having all of their starters for just 10 of the 21 games thus far.
The bad news: The Sixers haven't had a chance to really gel together yet.
External worries
Some things I am worried about are the Celtics and Raptors being much better than we expected, as well as Giannis playing out of his mind (averaging 31/13/6 !) and having the Bucks looking scary. I thought the Sixers would almost certainly reach the Eastern Conference Finals, but that is looking more difficult by the day. The No. 2 seed in the East, which would give them home court in the semis, is absolutely necessary.
Joel Embiid
Embiid hasn't really looked comfortable offensively all season long. Maybe it's because of the lack of floor spacing with limited shooters, maybe it's trying to figure out how to play alongside Al Horford, maybe it's a little bit of both. I don't know. But the game hasn't clicked for Embiid yet, who is still unable to deal with double teams.
Having said that, Jo is still averaging 22.4 points, 12.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 0.9 steals on 45.4% FG / 31.3% 3FG / 81.6% FT shooting. So he's still a beast.
Ben Simmons
A lot of the noise is Ben Simmons has regressed. He hasn't. Simmons is shooting less (10 attempts/game instead of 12), so naturally his scoring is down (13.0 PPG compared to 16.9 PPG last season). That's because there's more talent on the team. His FG% is still 52.8, his assists are 8.4 (which would be a career-high), and he's averaging 2.4 (!!) steals per game—2nd best in the NBA (behind Jimmy Butler, coincidentally).
Because Simmons averaged 15/8/8 as a 21-year-old rookie, the expectations have ballooned, fair or unfair. But if we keep things in perspective, the kid is among the best defensive players in the league and averaging 13/8/7 for a 15-6 team. Oh, and he's only 23.
Matis3e Thybulle
The rook has really come along lately. Here is his last four games (all wins):
10-15 FG / 7-9 3FG / 2-2 FT
22.0 minutes per game2.0 steals per game2.5 personal fouls per game< 1.0 turnover per game
If Thybulle's three-point shot can become even somewhat consistent, he'll be a major contributor all season long.
