Pros and Cons: Sixers vs. Suns
The good and bad from Sixers-Suns.
Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.
In their final game before Thursday afternoon’s NBA trade deadline, the Sixers returned home to face the Phoenix Suns, the reigning Western Conference champions and the best team in the NBA this season. Here’s what’s on my mind tonight:
Pro / Con: Tobias Harris leads strong second unit… and then doesn’t
How the Sixers align their substitution patterns has long been of interest to me -- more specifically, how they stagger their best players to keep consistently respectable lineups on the floor.
Tonight, it was Harris who subbed out early on to return at the start of the second quarter in a unit featuring many bench players. These lineups have been very shaky throughout the year, but tonight was a nice change of pace.
Harris was assertive with the ball early and often, setting the tone offensively to the tune of 17 first-half points on a very efficient 8-11 shooting from the floor.
As we’ve discussed before, his thinking -- or lack thereof -- often determines his productivity. When he’s in his own head, constantly processing things slowly, he often becomes more harmful than helpful. When he simply reacts instantaneously and plays within the flow of the game, however, he becomes an excellent three-level scorer that makes this team a whole lot more dangerous.
In the second half, however, Doc Rivers opted to go with a Furkan Korkmaz-Danny Green-Matisse Thybulle-Georges Niang-Andre Drummond lineup. Predictably, it did not go well — in fact, it sparked a major run for the Suns. I try not to harp on this every night, but these are meaningful minutes that are essentially being sacrificed needlessly. And it needs to be cleaned up before the playoffs — unlike last season.
Con: Seth Curry struggles massively… again
I discussed Curry’s issues after Sunday’s win in Chicago. If you missed it, here’s what I wrote:
“Curry has had trouble impacting the game over the last few weeks, shooting just 34 percent from the field and 25.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Of course, Curry’s exceptional shooting will return at some point -- he is too good for it not to. But given his very obvious defensive limitations, these shooting slumps are especially tough to manage.
Curry was dominant in last season’s playoffs, so he deserves the benefit of the doubt for now. But it’s worth monitoring for now that when his shot doesn’t fall, Curry is a brutal watch.
I’m not necessarily breaking news here, I know, but Curry has stuck out like a sore thumb recently, and it’s at least a bit concerning.”
Curry did hit a big three late in this game, but it was his first made field goal -- after eight straight misses, on mostly open looks -- in a game where he also was in foul trouble the entire night.
It’s worth wondering if Curry gets a rest day soon, because it sure looks like he could use one.
Pro: Niang and the importance of a quick trigger
Harris has had his aforementioned struggles developing a quick trigger. Niang, on the other hand, has had no such issues.
It is without question my favorite part about Niang since he joined the Sixers -- no matter what the score is, no matter how he’s shooting in a given stretch or a given game, he knows that the vast majority of his value is derived from his willingness to fire away from deep.
For example, Curry is in the middle of a brutal slump. And after a few early misses tonight, he was notably passive, giving up open looks for himself in favor of inferior shots for teammates.
Niang plays with the opposite mentality: when the ball comes to him, he is ready to go. Tonight, that resulted in him knocking down multiple threes and giving the Sixers’ bench a big boost. Nothing about his box score line will blow you away — eight points isn’t much in the grand scheme of things — but when you watch this team, his value to the offense is apparent, even on a night like tonight.