Orlando Magic Playoff Lessons: Philadelphia 76ers figuring out what to do with non-shooters

The Philadelphia 76ers’ rebuild path has been a wild one. Getting over the hill and into true championship contention has proven to be a difficult task for them.

The team went through the long process (keyword) of accumulating assets and players, trying to build up the kind of stars that could take them into championship contention. They found their breakthrough moment when they felt they were ready to compete and started amassing shooters to try to surround their eventually chosen star duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid.

Then the Sixers lost those shooters. Losing J.J. Redick had a major effect on the team in 2020 and Philadelphia sunk down the standings, finishing sixth before an embarrassing first-round sweep. And the questions rose again about whether the players the “Process” acquired could turn into champions.

Last year, the team acquired Danny Green and Seth Cury. They turned in career years from Joel Embiid (finishing second in MVP voting) and Tobias Harris into the top record in the Eastern Conference.

The Playoffs though revealed that shooting is still the most important skill to separate the contenders from the pretenders. The margins in a playoff series are still incredibly narrow. One thing can turn a series or a franchise’s future and the difference between success and failure are slim.

The Philadelphia 76ers’ struggles to shoot in key moments derailed a fantastic season and raised questions about their franchise players. The Orlando Magic should note how to surround non-shooters but also the confidence that remains to shoot.

Shooting still matters. At the end of the day, the ability to make a shot in a key situation and having players who are confident enough to take those shots. As teams build, they have to be thinking and preparing for these late-game moments.

The defining moment for the 76ers, and the one that has seemingly been the sticking point throughout their offseason, came in the late moments of Game 7 of their series with the Atlanta Hawks.

Trailing by two points, Ben Simmons drove to the lane and seemingly passed up a wide-open layup. He passed it to Matisse Thybulle who took the foul. He missed both free throws and the Hawks secured the upset.

For the postseason, Simmons averaged 11.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. He shot 62.1-percent from the floor on 7.9 field goal attempts per game. In the series against the Hawks, he averaged 9.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game while shooting 60.0-percent on 6.4 field goal attempts per game.

It was never that Simmons shot poorly. It is not even that he was not a great 3-point shooter or much of a 3-point threat. The narrative, which the numbers support, was the lack of confidence and lack of aggression he showed even to take shots. That fear was too much for him and his team to overcome in the end.

And that moment at the end of Game 7 crystallized a lot of frustration that came through the series. Whether he likes it or not, he is one of the team’s leaders and the team needed him to step up in a critical moment.

Philadelphia 76ers

It should not take away from how good Simmons can still be. Simmons is still one of the best perimeter defenders and a nightmare matchup as a lead playmaker. Philadelphia can run a truly unique lineup with Simmons as the lead ball-handler.

They did have the best record in the East last year nonetheless. And Embiid was carrying an injury suffered in the first round. Perhaps with better health, those small margins would have flipped in Philadelphia’s favor.

Still, Simmons proved to be a big hole for the Sixers. Their struggle with shooting was again the storyline, just as it was with their disappointing 2020 season.

Philadelphia did not deal with this issue although everyone speculated plenty. The aftermath of the Sixers seemingly openly shopping Simmons again is just about to play out too in training camp. If rumors are to be believed, he is not happy with the situation and has limited any communication with his team.

Training camp starts in a few short weeks.

3-point shooting is the key

But the Philadelphia 76ers’ problems will still come down to who is willing to shoot and take shots in those big moments.

Ben Simmons’ big non-shot was what stood out. But the key to the Sixers’ overall success has turned on their overall 3-point shooting.

Last year, Philadelphia was 10th in 3-point field goal percentage (37.4-percent) and 26th in attempts (30.1 per game). In 2020, when Philadelphia ended up the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference, the team was ninth in 3-point field goal percentage (36.8-percent) and 22nd in attempts (31.6 per game). In 2019, the Sixers were eighth in 3-point field goal percentage (35.9-percent) and 19th in attempts (30.2 per game).

In the regular season, Philadelphia has always been a low volume, high percentage team from deep. The Sixers were always capable of hurting teams from deep.

But this shooting weakness became apparent in the playoffs. In the 2019 playoffs, Philadelphia shot 33.1-percent from deep (11th among Playoff teams) on 28.4 attempts per game (14th among playoff teams). In 2020, that dropped to 26.4-percent on 3-pointers (the worst among playoff teams) on 30.3 attempts per game (also the fewest).

In 2021, that went to third in 3-point field goal percentage (39.3-percent) on 28.4 attempts per game. In that second-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, the Philadelphia 76ers made 40.5-percent of their 3-pointers.

This low-volume, high-efficiency 3-point method can work (the Hawks for their part shot just 33.5-percent from deep). So Philadelphia’s problems may not stem from 3-point shooting. In fact, it may be their 3-point shooting that makes them potentially elite in the playoffs.

But it was still crystallized in those crunch-time moments, Philadelphia needed its ball-handlers to find open shooters and be confident to shoot. That is what is at the heart of the team’s issues with Simmons.

Dealing with non-shooters

The Orlando Magic are in desperate need of more 3-point shooting. They are not hiding from that.

Orlando Magic

They finished 27th in 3-point field goal percentage last year and have been one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league since Dwight Howard left in 2012. The only blip was Orlando’s finish in 11th in 2019, the only season the team finished .500.

The Magic were the worst 3-point shooting team in the 2019 playoffs. There is clearly a difference between regular season shooting and playoff shooting.

But at the heart of success in both the regular season and the playoffs starts with shooting. And having players confident enough to shoot.

Orlando has its own non-shooting lead guard too in Markelle Fultz.

It never made sense to have both Simmons and Fultz on the same roster in Philadelphia. But since Fultz arrived in Orlando, Fultz has never been afraid to shoot, even if his percentages are down.

That was even the case in the playoffs — he shot 37.5-percent from beyond the arc on 12.0 field goal attempts per game in the 2020 series against the Milwaukee Bucks.

But it is still yet to be seen how he performs in a playoff series with a real roster. And the Magic are light on shooters surrounding any key players to become a serious threat.

Other teams have cracked the code to working with non-shooting playmakers. Simmons’ situation is not unique.

The Milwaukee Bucks became NBA champions despite Giannis Antetokounmpo’s poor 3-point shooting. But he was still such a force and aggressive going to the basket — 20.9 field goal attempts per game in the playoffs — it freed up shooters around him. And they delivered in the moments that mattered.

Even with a poor free throw percentage, Antetokounmpo kept his eyes on the basket and kept attacking. That was markedly different from Simmons’ approach.

At this point in the NBA’s development, a team is as serious a threat in the playoffs as its shooters allow. Shooters need to shoot and shoot well. And defenses have to respect even non-shooters as drive-and-kick threats to have any success.

The Sixers are still trying to figure out how to create this necessary balance. How to use Simmons and all his strengths and turn them into a playoff factor. They certainly were not in last year’s playoffs when the chips were down.

But that is ultimately when teams find out who can play and who cannot. In the playoffs, everyone has to rise to the moment.