Some thoughts and observations left over from the 76ers’ most recent game, a 124-86 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at The Center.
After losing to the Atlanta Hawks in their February debut on Wednesday, the 76ers will look to move forward by recapturing the form with which they played throughout the better part of January. They won four games in the month, and made gains defensively, on the perimeter, and, most notably, in point guard performance. By no means has the impact of Ish Smith been lost on Brett Brown. Smith started all 14 of the Sixers’ January outings, and manufactured 8.1 assists per game for the month, an average that was fifth-best among all NBA players. Still, Brown believes there’s another factor responsible for explaining why the club has been moving along as of late.”A lot of people, some fairly, point to Ish as the thing that tripped all of this. That is not entirely true,” Brown said Wednesday of the point guard who’s averaged 15.4 points per game since being reacquired by the Sixers on December 24th. “There is improvement in all of the players, and I think in all of the schemes we’ve gotten better because it has been so vanilla.”Brown feels that the straightforward nature of the Sixers’ offense and defense has caused a positive dynamic to emerge among his young players. “It’s just more accountable, it’s a freer conversation because they at times can beat me to it where they know they’ve made a mistake,” explained Brown. “A teammate can react to a teammate where they know they’ve made a mistake. When you get to that type of system, where the players can coach the players, and that level of accountability is moving forward as it is with us, then I think schematically you can improve.”In addition to an increase in accountability, the Sixers’ roster is also now experiencing greater stability than it has featured in the past. So far, the team has parted ways with just two players – Phil Pressey and Tony Wroten – who had appeared in a regular season game. This time last year, the Sixers had already moved on from six players that had suited up for at least one outing. “Just everybody has played a big role in what we’ve done so far, and we built upon it, and we see what we’re capable of, so guys are really locked into what we’ve been doing,” said Robert Covington, discussing the benefits of the Sixers’ continuity. “We’re going out there each and every night and showing what we’re capable of, and doing it on a consistent basis, and guys are giving great effort. That’s one thing we build off of. We see it, because all the games that we’ve played, there’s been so much growth from it from when we first started, and now that we’ve continued to get better and grow throughout the season. We just got to continue to build.”Friday’s visit to the Washington Wizards will give Covington and the Sixers their next opportunity to pursue that mission.
January was a good month for Jahlil Okafor. He ranked second among all first-year players with an average of 17.2 points per game, just 0.2 points per game off Devin Booker’s rookie-high for the month. Additionally, Okafor converted 60.9 percent of his January field goal attempts. That figure not only topped his peers, but also represented a substantial improvement from the 45.5 field goal percentage he generated through the first two months of his career. Okafor turned in his highest monthly offensive rating (99.3) and lowest monthly defensive rating (104.5) as well. Still, the third overall selection in the 2015 NBA Draft was again passed over for NBA Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month honors. New York’s Kristaps Porzingis has taken the award all three times it’s been handed out. Comparing the two, Okafor scored at a more prolific rate and shot the ball more accurately than Porzingis did in January. The Duke product also fared better in the defensive rating and player impact estimate numbers tabulated by stats.nba.com. Porzingis, though, had a stronger month in terms of offensive rating and rebounding. Despite Okafor missing out on a formal recognition for his January performance, Brett Brown feels the center is receiving a fair amount of respect in league circles. “He’s been on a personal road map with me on just a tiny few areas that we zoom in on to help grow him,” Brown said on Wednesday. “There’s a few things on defense, there’s a few things on offense, that every game he gets a grade, a little report card. And we walk him through, ‘This was good, this wasn’t.’ But he’s lived in a tiny world.””‘I’ve seen improvement in his screening. Offensively, I’ve seen his improvement in his spacing. When he’s not involved in the play, he had a tendency initially he just wants the ball. Every place he’s ever been, he’s going to get the ball and he’s going to score. Now he’s playing with other bigs, so spacing becomes an issue, and people that catch and go drive. He can’t crash into driving lanes.”Brown continued, “Then defensively, his positioning with his feet in pick-and-rolls has improved. Always, we’re going to talk his rebounding. Needs to improve there too. I think that he keeps getting better, and I hope others see the same things I do.” Okafor said Wednesday he learns best by experiencing lessons first-hand, and that his report cards help him “become better every game.”Okafor delivered six 20-point showings in January, the most of any member of the current draft class. He’s also reached double-figures in a rookie-best 16 consecutive contests.
As part of Jahlil Okafor’s evolution, Brett Brown and the Sixers’ coaching staff conducted a test on Wednesday. They wanted to challenge their starting center by having him defend Atlanta’s top power forward. This wasn’t just any power forward, either. It was three-time All-Star selection Paul Millsap. With Okafor guarding Millsap for extended segments of the first and third quarters, Nerlens Noel, the Sixers’ regular four-man, took on Hawks’ five-man Al Horford. “Trying to just look at it,” said Brown, shedding light on the decision. “I think that we want to learn as much as we can about how to pair Nerlens and Jahlil, and give them different match-ups from time-to-time, and sort of see stuff. I think that in the course of the season, we do different match-ups like that from time-to-time, and we had a look at it.”Millsap managed to score 10 points against the Sixers, knocking down three of his 11 field goal attempts. Okafor seemed to get more comfortable with the assignment as the game went along, but Brown said afterwards the rookie still needs to gain more experience defending the power forward position.
