The Philadelphia 76er's have a big expectation season for them after acquiring star Paul George early in the offseason. The 76ers also had the 16th overall pick where they selected Jared McCain out of Duke. The 76ers brought back and signed new players to help fill out the team. After an impressive play off series by Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid coming off winning a gold medal, how will this team stand in the reigning champs division?
First let's look at the signing of Paul George and how his play can elevate the already good duo of Maxey and Embiid. George declined his player option for $48.8 million for this upcoming season. The nine-time All Star signed a 4-year $212 million max contract, the biggest free agent contract this offseason. George is coming off being in a somewhat similar role as there could be nights he is the best or third scoring option for his team. That scoring will transfer over and George has touched on how he's never played with one of the dominant centers/players in the league before on his podcast, Podcast P. It will be interesting where George's numbers fall offensively as the numbers have been dropping but his percentages have improved every year. Which is impressive as last year was the most games he played for the Los Angeles Clippers; 74 games which is a big improvement from starting with the first year 48, 54, 31 and 56 games two years ago. The Sixers must keep an eye out for George's health even though I do think he's learned how to maintain himself better. One aspect of George's game that I'm interested to see is when or if his defense starts declining. It's much easier to be a veteran and find your shots than it is to stay with the times and keep up with defense. George is coming off back to back years averaging 1.5 steals and George still has his impressive 6'8'' 220lb frame. I just question will he be able to keep up defensively. I think the Sixers still need to find someone who can hound guards. Maybe that player is new signing Reggie Jackson. Who has been a more offensive oriented point guard but maybe with limited minutes he'll realize defense will carve out a role for him on this team. Or maybe it's the returning Philadelphia native veteran Kyle Lowry, who has that defensive pedigree but is aging faster than George and Jackson. Seeing what type of impact George delivers for your team I could see the Sixers acquiring a piece in the season as I know George will contribute but will the Sixers still need more?
Jared McCain has a good amount of hype coming out of the draft for only being the 16th pick. McCain played at Duke where he was a steady guard for the team averaging 14.3 points, 1.9 assists and 5 rebounds on 46%fg, 41% 3pt and 88% ft. From the stats standpoint you can see McCain is probably not your typical lead guard as he didn't average the amount of assists you would look for at the point guard. However, some of that is credited to Duke's play style and that they already had a true point guard they trusted in Jeremy Roach (averaged 3.3 ast). What McCain did showcase was elite shooting at a young age. The benefit of the Duke offense is that McCain demonstrated catch and shoot and off the dribble shooting. Both of which the Sixers need and McCain will be able to provide day one. I think it's great that he has Maxey to learn from as they aren't that far apart in age and can both shoot the skin off the ball.
A-lot of the talk about McCain is away from basketball and more to his social media presence off the court. On Paul Georges podcast "Podcast P" McCain talks about how he is frustrated with people focussing more on his TikTok than his game. He mentions how no NBA team asked about the nails but all did have a question regarding his social media presence during the combine interviews. "Consistency. That's, that's the main thing. I was just posting a lot. And then at Peach Jam for UYBL, I did it after every game and we won the whole, we won Peach Jam. So After every game. I did a TikTok Actually before the game, I'd posted it and we'd end up winning everybody. Like once, once like, because we were there for like two weeks at Peach Jam. It was the COVID one and everybody is like in my comments like, oh, what's the score? Like they want me to lose really bad. Right, right, right. And we didn't lose. Yeah. And we won. So like that's where like kind of the followers kind of came like, I think I got like 250,000 at that point and I was like, this is crazy. Do you Sit back and think of tiktoks all day? Like Not at all. Not at all. It's for people think, man, I get the comments sometimes. I know after, if we lose a game it's gonna be straight to my TikTok comments for sure" (McCain 00:32:44) Living and playing for a sport in Philadelphia it's great to know how to handle rude fans and how to continue doing what makes you happy outside of the game.
The Sixers have done a good job building the rest of the roster in this offseason by bringing back returning players and adding veteran talent. First the two biggest returning pieces to me are Kelly Oubre Jr. and Andre Drummond. Oubre is coming off his 1 year, $2.8 million minimum contract where I knew he was going to outplay that contract. However, I didn't know if he played so well that another team might want him and with the new second apron the role player market has dropped as teams don't want to pass a certain threshold. Oubre was able to negotiate a two-year, $16 million with a player option according to the Kansas City Star. Oubre added another scoring punch that could play with the starters or be the sixth man. With the acquisition of Paul George I could really see Kelly carving out his role on the bench as the 76er's offense can be very ISO Joel. It will be interesting to see what impact Oubre adds to a contending team as this is his first competent team since his rookie Washington Wizards stint. Andre Drummond is the next reacquisition returning after his two year stay with the Chicago Bulls. Drummonds role will be the same as the Bulls and when he was previously on the Sixers being a solid rebounding big off the bench. Paul Reed, now a piston played a fun different pace than previous Sixers bigs. Reed liked to get crafty when his opportunity did arrive, adding a three point shot to his arsenal shooting 36% after shooting 0%, 25% and 16% the year prior. The sample size is not large but neither was really Reed only standing at 6'9'' 210lbs just too small it felt like epically when you're replacing Embiid. Drummond on the other hand in his one year with Philadelphia I thought he played a very good role for the team where like the Bulls some nights he will start probably more for injury reasons due to Embiid's injury history. I think it's been very apparent that Joel is incapable of backpacking a team from regular season into the postseason as his body takes a beating throughout the season. Having Drummond allows someone else to take on some of the heavy lifting on the backside of the defense and rebounding. I believe this team has shooting and defense to where they can experiment with lineups. I could see this team create lineups with Maxey and McCain as two small guards who can shoot. I can also see some minutes where Embiid and Drummond may be out there for bigger matchup situations
With all of these additions while elevate the play of last years duo but will it be enough to take control of the east? Time will tell but I would say this team has secured themselves as a top 4 team in the east. To start the season off I would lean towards the defensive upside of this team first as it will take time for the offense to become fluid with all these new faces. Coach Nick Nurse I believe will play around with lineups like I mentioned as he even adjusted lineups during Leonards championship year with the Raptors.
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