To be the title challengers they appear to be on paper, the Philadelphia 76ers must become more consistent and resolve the "weird dynamic" between Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, says Ovie Soko.
Philadelphia 76ers
Season record: 39-26 (29-2 at home, 10-24 on road)
Sixth place in Western Conference
The Philadelphia 76ers are a team everyone expects so much from. When you look at their personnel on paper, it makes sense for them to be heavy contenders in the East and possibly have a place in the Finals. But we have not seen consistency from them. And on the road, they have really, really struggled.
Yes, the Sixers are a playoff team but I personally feel they have underachieved, primarily because of their inconsistency throughout the season. That's where they need to make the biggest strides.
That inconsistency comes from the top of the organisation. The challenge is to put real leadership in place and I don't know if that ultimately comes in the form of moving on one of their two big dogs, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. I definitely feel they cannot co-exist on that team long-term if the 76ers are to be successful.
To be the team a lot of people see them as on paper, the Sixers are going to have to figure those things out. They have to find a formula that works for them, one that makes them more consistent, one that enables them to win on the road. I also feel there is a lot of locker room stuff possibly getting in the way of their ability to do that and take things to the next level.
All of those factors mean you don't really know what type of performance you are going get from Philly on a given night. Because of that, I don't see them as a legitimate contender to win the East. They will challenge whoever they face and they will push them hard. But in a playoff atmosphere, I can't bank on their consistency to carry them through the duration of the postseason.
The Sixers player of the season has to be Embiid, in my opinion, but even that is a funny one. You've had absolutely bonkers nights from him (like his 38-point outburst against the Boston Celtics in December) but you also have him putting up a 'goose egg' (zero points, as he did on the road against the Toronto Raptors in November).
A big part of the 76ers being able to move forward is building consistent performances from their go-to guy (Embiid) or go-to guys (Embiid and Simmons).
It doesn't seem like we get the best of either Embiid or Simmons when they are playing together. That situation forces Embiid to take shots from the outside. It's not that he isn't a capable shooter, he can make threes, but when you force him to work 'outside-in' you lose the advantage of other players being able to play around him. Simmons' style of play doesn't leave space for a big man like Embiid who likes to 'eat up' the paint.
The Sixers made an interesting move picking up Al Horford last offseason but, so far, it hasn't panned out that well for them. I'm sure they wanted him, as a veteran with playoff experience, to be in a leadership position on the team. He is a well-respected big man who has proven himself in the league. But, because of the nature of the other guys on the team, I don't know if Horford's style of leadership has been able to translate.
The impact of losing Jimmy Butler last summer has really shown this season. Butler is a different kind of leader to Horford, who is a more passive presence, a role model for the younger guys. Butler is a vocal guy who isn't worried about being liked. He isn't necessarily bothered about hurting peoples' feelings and, while we don't know how that played out last season, it was what was necessary. The way the 76ers have underachieved this season without him shows that.
To move forward, to really push forward, Philly are going to have to shuffle the deck a little bit. Whether that is (moving) Embiid or (moving) Simmons, I don't know, but I definitely feel (the team needs to decide). Simmons has shown more maturity, more consistently but, of the two of them, I think Embiid is the more talented player. (Moving one of them could be the best thing) for their own development. They are both still young players making their way.
I am sure both players see themselves as 'alphas', but that whole 'alpha' ego thing without maturity is a dangerous mix. I think that works against Philly. This season has shown, more than anything, the 76ers get in their own way a lot of the time. A lot of it is unseen locker room stuff. We even saw Horford speak out and address the fact something was going on in the locker room.
On professional teams, there are always interesting dynamics in the locker room but for Philadelphia, it is affecting them on the court. They have good pieces in Mike Scott and Tobias Harris. Harris is a big-time role player. But with Embiid and Simmons, the two guys they need to lead from the front, I feel there is stuff going on between them (impacting on the team as a whole). Whether those things are being verbalised in the locker room or if things in there are passive, there is a weird dynamic between their two key guys.
Until the 76ers figure out a way to make it work with both Embiid or Simmons or shuffle the deck and move forward with one of them as their go-to guy, it is going to be tough for them to get over the hurdles of Milwaukee, Toronto and Boston in the East.
With the 22-team campus set-up the NBA are reportedly going with for the playoffs and the level of talent the 76ers have, you can't write them off. But which version of the team will come out to play? The dominant home team or the struggling road team? And it's that doubt that stops them being legitimate title contenders.
One thing we know about championship teams across the board is we know what to expect from them night in, night out. When the Golden State Warriors were dominating the league, you knew they were going to shoot a hell of a lot of threes and do their jobs on defense. The key thing for championship teams is identity: they know exactly who they are and how they are going to perform. Those teams don't beat themselves.
The Philadelphia 76ers can't say that and I think it annoys their fans. A lot of basketball fans feel the same way. We know the Sixers are extremely capable but we just don't know which version of them we are going to see. That lack of consistency is the Philly story this season. It's something they are going to have to work through, starting with sorting out the dynamic between Embiid and Simmons.