Some thoughts and observations left over from the 76ers’ most recent game, a 121-114 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday at Smoothie King Center. To best access this content on a mobile device, select the “view in browser” option.
The challenge of defending New Orleans’ All-Star big man Anthony Davis foiled any chance of seeing Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor log extensive minutes together in the Sixers’ first game back from the NBA All-Star break. Fourteen seconds into the opening quarter, Okafor was whistled for his first personal foul. About two minutes later, he was charged with his second. By the 6:25 mark of the first period, the rookie committed his third harm, forcing Brett Brown to sit him for the remainder of the half. In Friday’s third quarter, the lone segment of the contest during which Noel and Okafor were able to stay on the court together, they submitted productive results, combining to punch in 20 of the first 22 points of what proved to be a revitalizing period for the Sixers. Check out the highlight package below to see some of the duo’s work from the third quarter. For the game, Noel and Okafor were on the court for the same time for 13 minutes, generating a plus-four rating, according to stats.nba.com. Noel ended the night with a season-best 24 points (10-15 fg) and nine rebounds, while Okafor posted 14 points (5-9 fg) and five rebounds. Okafor did all of his scoring in the third quarter, and later fouled out in the fourth frame. Still, his and Noel’s joint output – 38 points and 14 rebounds – reinforced a comment that Sam Hinkie made on Friday at an afternoon press conference conducted at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. “We feel good about the way those two have fit together so far,” said Hinkie, the Sixers’ President of Basketball Operations and General Manager. “I think they really complement each other, particularly defensively. I think you see when Nerlens is near the basket how his instincts really take over. I think you see how he’s grown.”Noel began Friday’s outing by defending the center position, then switched to cover the Pelicans’ power forward spot, which was assumed primarily by Davis, after intermission. Noel’s diverse defensive skill set has helped shape the Sixers’ schemes. “A lot of the NBA plays pick-and-roll soft,” explained Hinkie. “We call it ‘centerfield.’ You’re playing pick-and-rolls in a way where you’re trying to keep your big in front of the basket. You see that more and more and more. It encourages jump shots and keeps you in good rebounding position. It minimizes fouls. You don’t get many turnovers out of it, but it’s a tested way to play and to win, and to win deep, from the Tom Thibodeau defenses, to the way the Spurs have played for a decade, to the way we played at the Rockets when we had Yao Ming.””At the same time,” Hinkie continued, “Nerlens is really different in the sense that he can get up and pressure people and has these incredibly quick hands and retreat. He can pressure further out on the floor. And then we also see, late in the game, so many switches and how often a switch happens and how effective he can be, and someone as big as him and as quick as him can be in that situation.”Just a few short hours after Hinkie provided those remarks, Noel, as if on cue, made the man who traded for him back in 2013 sound prophetic. Late in Friday’s fourth quarter, with the Sixers piecing together a comeback push, Noel – initially matched up on Davis – hedged to the perimeter, helped Isaiah Canaan trap Jrue Holiday, and forced Holiday into a turnover. Here’s a look at the play. On the offensive possession that was created via the forced turnover, Robert Covington was fouled while shooting a three-point field goal, allowing the Sixers to not only trim their deficit to six points, but stop the game clock with just under a minute to go. In terms of Okafor’s defensive development, the rookie went into the Sixers’ recently-wrapped up eight-day lay-off on a positive note. During the club’s three-game homestand that preceded the All-Star break, Okafor combined to block eight shots, and haul in a total of 36 rebounds. That last number stood out to Brett Brown in particular.”It shows what can be,” said Brown of Okafor’s potential on the boards. “I think that when you’re always judging NBA interior players – call him a five-man, call him a four-man, call him what you want, he’s an interior player; we’re testing how to best play him, too – your judgment in many cases is, ‘Do you rebound and can you guard pick-and-roll?’ And that’s just the defensive side of it. Those two areas we haven’t left. We talk about it freely. We game-ify it with certain stats and visuals. That area is one of the two heavyweights. Can you rebound, can you guard a pick-and-roll? I think it’s in him to get better, he showed us that he could, and we’ll hope to walk down this final third with those focuses in mind.” Hinkie acknowledged that the Sixers adding “more and more shooting to our team” remains a priority, and represents a key step for maximizing the impact of Noel and Okafor are capable of offering.For now, though, Hinkie is pleased with what he’s seen. “Has it been perfect every night? No,” Hinkie said on Friday. “We ascribe that as much to their youth as anything else. Both of them – this is Nerlens’ second full season of playing, and Jah’s first full season playing – they’re both off to great starts individually, and I think it’s been increasingly good together.””We feel better and better about it as we watch them together.”Okafor, the third selection in last June’s NBA Draft, is averaging 17.1 points and 7.3 rebounds in 30.2 minutes per game. Noel is manufacturing career-highs with 11.0 points and 8.2 rebounds in 29.4 minutes per contest.
Another ear-catching subject that surfaced during Sam Hinkie’s nearly half-hour long session with reporters on Friday was the nature of the Sixers’ style of play, and the extent to which the basketball operations staff is committed to it. Since Hinkie and Brett Brown arrived, the Sixers have attempted to construct – in the general sense – a youthful, high-upside roster that consistently competes hard, doing so with a defense-first mindset and an ability to push tempo on offense. In examining the Sixers’ offensive approach, Hinkie doesn’t envision the club’s tenets changing. “I think we’ve played, really since the 13-14 season, we’ve played a style that we think we want to play long-term: free throws, lay-ups, and threes,” Hinkie said. “We try to get to the rim as much as we can, and we try to create lots of contact. We try to shoot lots of threes. That’s on the come up in a big way around the league. There were lots of arguments against that, and then the Warriors won [the 2015 NBA title]. Then, a bunch of other people played really well playing that kind of style.” As of Saturday morning, the Sixers ranked sixth in the NBA in pace, creating 99.95 possessions per game, according to stats.nba.com. Underscoring the Sixers’ offensive points of emphasis further, the team has attempted the fifth-most field goals per game from less than five feet from the rim, and have also taken the third-most tries per game between 25 and 29 feet from the bucket. Those shooting range distances are the shortest and longest, respectively, measured by stats.nba.com.
As Sam Hinkie stated on Friday, there can be small deals and big deals that go down at the NBA trade deadline. The Sixers, by all accounts, completed a transaction of the former variety. They picked up nine-year center Joel Anthony from the Detroit Pistons, and, in a related move, snagged a 2017 second-round draft selection from the Houston Rockets. Hinkie expressed satisfaction with the Sixers’ gains. More so, he was encouraged to discover that his counterparts around the league were intrigued by young prospects that the Sixers are developing. “One of the things I do feel good about is obviously just the significant interest in our players,” said Hinkie. “Sometimes, you pay a lot of attention to what other ssay because it’s a gauge against drinking your own Kool-Aid.””To hear the broad swath of value that they see in a lot of our young guys, that have really come along, that people didn’t think as much about just a few years ago – whether it be Robert Covington or Jerami Grant or Richaun Holmes or T.J. [McConnell] – I think that’s a credit to our staff and the hard work. I should say that our staff pulled many, many late nights, per usual. Our front office works incredibly hard to try to make things happen. That’s critical for us to try to make great decisions and we felt good about how that went. But we also feel good about the way our coaches have built these young men up in ways to show the world what part of the commitment we make to them. “
