December 17, 2015

A few Sixers numbers that matter, and one that doesn't

By Matt Mullin
PhillyVoice Staff

The Philadelphia 76ers have played about one third of their games this season and are currently on pace to win just three games. That seems impossible but with a 1-26 record to this point, they have a shot to destroy the NBA's record for futility, which currently belongs to the 1972-73 Sixers (9-73).

Not all the numbers are bad for the Sixers. Most of them are, sure, but if you search hard enough you'll find something to feel good about. Unfortunately, you'll only find one of them in this post, and even that comes with a caveat.

Now that you've been warned, here are a few Sixers stats that stand out so far this season:

-27.2

That’s how many points by which opponents are outscoring the Sixers, per 100 possessions, when both Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel are on the court together per Basketball Reference. It’s also the third-worst number of any two-man combo in the entire NBA (min. 250+ minutes).

Some of that is to be expected — nine of the 10 worst combos belong to the Sixers, including the bottom seven — considering the team for which they play. However, it’s not a good sign that Okafor, the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft, is part of four of the worst five. And it’s not like every Sixers combo is as bad — although they don’t have a single combo (that’s played at least 250 minutes together) in positive numbers. The Isaiah Canaan/T.J. McConnell duo is the team’s best at -0.2 points per 100 possession.

For comparison purposes, the Warriors currently have 16 of the top 20 combos, with the best being the Klay Thomspon/Andre Iguodala and the Steph Curry/Iguodala pairings, both at +28.9, or 56.1 points better per 100 possessions.

The Sixers will need to figure something out, because as Golden State continues to provide a new blueprint for success in the NBA, they not only have these two young bigs, but also hope to have Joel Embiid back at some point in the future.

657

Speaking of Embiid, that’s the number of days since he last played in a basketball game (March 1, 2014).

179

That's the number of blocked shots the Sixers have recorded this season, which is the most in the NBA. And it's not like they've all come from one place, as only two of their players rank within the top 50 in the league in total blocks -- Jerami Grant is 8th with 49 blocks (1.8/game) and Jahlil Okafor is 18th with 35 (1.4/game). If you think this isn't a great indication of a team's defense, consider the other four teams in the top five are all in the top 12 in defensive rating, and are four of the better overall teams in the NBA.

You tell me if one of these teams looks like it doesn't belong...

RK		W-L	BLK	DRTG
1	Sixers	1-26	179	26
2	Warriors	25-1	173	8
3	Heat	15-9	172	4
4	Thunder	17-8	168	11
5	Spurs	22-5	156	1

While that's good for Brett Brown's team, the Sixers also lead the league in opponents' blocks with 183 allowed.

If you ain't first, you're last.

93.9

And when it comes to scoring, the Sixers are far from first -- they're actually last, and by a pretty wide margin. They average just 91.1 points per game, but if you slightly adjust the metrics you use to the much more accurate offensive rating, which measures output based on per 100 possessions, their offensive ineptitude looks even worse.

This season, their offensive rating is 93.9, meaning they score just under 94 points per every 100 possessions, according to basketball-reference.com. Since 1973-74 (as far as basketball-reference.com's Play Index goes back) there have been only four teams with worse ratings, with the most recent -- and worst -- belonging to the 2002-03 Denver Nuggets (92.2), who finished the season with a 17-65 record. It's also the worst offensive rating in team history since the 1973-74 Sixers.

In each of their three seasons under Brown, the Sixers offensive efficiency has gone down. After posting a 100+ rating in 35 of the last 37 years, they have failed to do so under their new coach. In his first season, the Sixers finished with a 99.4 rating. That number dropped to 95.4 last season. This season, it's the lowest it's been since Doug Collins' rookie season -- as a player, not a coach.

Worse yet, the Sixers are five points behind second-to-last place (the Nets) and almost seven points behind the Bulls, who are the next closest team. For some perspective, that's the same difference between 28th place (Bulls) and fourth place (Cavaliers). Add in the fact that the Sixers are tied for ninth in terms of pace (97 possessions per 48 minutes), things really aren't looking good for the offense.

And now for a totally random stat that I haven't really been able to make sense of yet...

2 minutes, 52.5 seconds

Wednesday night, during the Sixers' 127-106 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, I noticed that Brett Brown had a tendency to call timeouts early in games.

I feel like Brett Brown calls a timeout within the first five minutes of every game to try to stop an opponent’s run. Every game.
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) December 17, 2015

But as the game went on, I began to realize that this wasn't limited to the first quarter alone.

The first timeout in each of the Sixers' last 20 quarters was taken, on average, two minutes and 52.5 seconds into play. But what makes this number really crazy is that Brett Brown has called all but two of them -- his first timeout of a quarter comes an average of 3 minutes and 20 seconds in. And based on the rest of the numbers, it's safe to say Brown would've called one had the opposing coach not beaten him to the punch.

Furthermore, those two times are also the only two in which Brown didn’t call a timeout in the first six minutes of a quarter. Here's a breakdown of the Sixers last five games, and how long into each quarter (in seconds) the first timeout was called.