The swirling lineups of the Sixers have been anchored by Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.
Shooting is crucial unless you’re lucky enough to have LeBron James and Anthony Davis on your team, dominating the game in the paint. Even then, it’s beneficial to have players who can spread the floor and make long-range shots.
Many elements – such as turnovers, free throw rate, and offensive rebounding – influence overall efficiency. However, shooting is the ultimate factor. As expected, there’s a significant link between a team’s efficiency in scoring and its 3-point shooting performance.
Even if a team doesn’t shoot particularly well, it can improve efficiency by increasing its 3-point volume. Just ask Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey, whose Houston Rockets led the league in 3-point rate (3PA/FGA) in each of the last seven seasons, taking over 50% of their shots from beyond the arc in each of the last three. The Rockets didn’t rank any higher than 12th in 3-point percentage over those seven years, but still ranked in the top seven in offensive efficiency in six of the seven.
Surprisingly, the Sixers have consistently ranked in the top 10 for 3-point percentage over the past three seasons. However, the volume has been lacking. Their two star players excel in the paint and they have had a sufficient number of high-volume shooters supporting them.
In the 2020 playoffs (when they got swept in the first round), the Sixers ranked last in 3-point percentage (26.4%) and 15th in the percentage of their shots that came from 3-point range (36.0%). They were missing the guy — Ben Simmons — who ranked third in the league with 226 assists on 3-pointers, 48% of the 469 3s his teammates made while he was on the floor.
But they were also missing real shooters. Al Horford, Josh Richardson, Tobias Harris are capable from downtown, but they aren’t 3-point shooters by nature. Among 190 players with at least 200 field goal attempts from outside the paint last season, Horford (1.80), Richardson (1.66) and Harris (1.59) ranked 141st, 147th and 152nd in their ratio of 3-point attempts to mid-range attempts. And neither moved without the ball like JJ Redick in the Sixers’ offense two seasons ago.
All three individuals are skilled players, however, the situation greatly matters. The specific situation in Philly is that the two primary players – Simmons and Joel Embiid – are powerhouses in the paint and require as much shooting backup as they can get.
So Morey got to work on Wednesday. Horford is gone, reportedly heading to Oklahoma City in a deal that yielded Danny Green and Terrance Ferguson. With the Lakers last season, Green took 69% of his shots from 3-point range, the 10th-highest rate among 248 players with at least 300 field goal attempts.
Richardson is also gone, heading to Dallas in a trade that brings Seth Curry to Philly. Curry ranked third in 3-point percentage (45.2%) and the 48.1% he shot on catch-and-shoot 3s was the best mark among 209 players who attempted at least 100.
Ferguson (29.2%) was near the bottom of that list, but does at least give the Sixers some additional wing depth. That will allow Harris to play mostly at power forward.
There were 133 players who shot better than the league average (35.8%) on at least 100 3-point attempts last season. The Sixers finished the season with six of those guys, two of them — Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III — free agents.
On Wednesday, they managed to add two more to the team without any losses. Prior to entering free agency, the Sixers are one of the two teams having six out of the 133 players – Curry, Green, Harris, Furkan Korkmaz, Shake Milton and Mike Scott – under a contract for the coming season.
While the Sixers have compromised some defense due to their two trades, uncertainties linger about the offensive compatibility of Simmons and Embiid. Despite this, their defense will remain solid as long as both players are present. Moreover, there are now less doubts about the integration of the rest of the team with them.
“Having a truly elite shooter,” Morey said late Wednesday, “really changes the dynamic for Ben and Joel.”
The Sixers are unlikely to make half of their attempts from the 3-point range this season. However, they are expected to ascend in the 3-point rate rankings, driven by a more fearless approach from the supporting team members.
More shooters on the move
Out of 133 players who had a shooting percentage of 35.8% or higher on a minimum of 100 3-point attempts, 10 have been traded. The Phoenix Suns are another team that has added two of these players, acquiring Chris Paul who had a 36.5% shooting rate on 304 attempts and Abdel Nader who scored 37.5% on 128 attempts from Oklahoma City.
The Thunder initially had five out of 133 players. They traded three of them, namely Paul, Nader, and Dennis Schroder. It’s probable that they might lose a fourth player, Danilo Gallinari, through free agency. The fifth player they had was Mike Muscala, who has the option to either stay or leave the team next season.
The remaining five members of the group are anticipated to be in transition (not all transactions are finalized):
- Trevor Ariza has moved from Portland to Detroit via Houston.
- George Hill (from Milwaukee, now in New Orleans)
- Luke Kennard (transferred from Detroit to the Clippers)
- Ricky Rubio, who moved from Phoenix to Minnesota via Oklahoma City.
- Landry Shamet has moved from the Clippers to Brooklyn.
Interestingly, the other team with six of the 133 above-average 3-point shooters under contract for next season is the San Antonio Spurs, with LaMarcus Aldridge, Trey Lyles, Patty Mills, Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and Derrick White. Alas, only two of those six guys (Mills and White) fired off more than 175 3-point attempts last season. The Spurs ranked 28th in the percentage of their shots that came from 3-point range (in the bottom seven for the fifth straight season).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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