Oct 24, 2022; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris (12) dribbles against the Indiana Pacers in the third quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

Sixers plod their way to 1-4 start

By Sean Keane | Last updated Oct 27, 2022 1:51 PM ET

The Philadelphia 76ers are off to a slow start. In every way.

The Sixers, who lost to Toronto Wednesday night to fall to 1-4, are one of the league's most disappointing teams so far. And they're one of the slowest. In Pace Factor, an estimate of how many possessions a team gets in a 48-minute game, the Sixers have a 94.6, the lowest in the league.

That's in part because their two top scorers are some of the most isolation-heavy players in the league. James Harden goes iso on 34.3 percent of his possessions, easily the highest percentage in the league, and Joel Embiid's 14.1 percent puts him among the NBA's 20 most isolated offensive players.

While Harden is still efficient when he isolates, the 76ers offense gets stagnant with so much time spent watching Embiid or Harden dribble in one spot. Philadelphia is 25th in fast break points with 11.4 per game, down from last year's 12.6, which was 13th in the NBA.

But it's also in transition defense that Philly's speed is lacking.

The Sixers are giving up an embarrassingly-high 139 points per 100 possessions in transition, the worst rate in the NBA this season and on pace to be the worst since @SynergySST began tracking in 2004. https://t.co/oPwy3Zyh80
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) October 27, 2022

Part of that is their age. The Sixers start three players who are 30 or older, including 37-year-old P.J. Tucker. Embiid wasn't speedy before, but a summer spent dealing with plantar fasciitis has made him even slower. The Sixers gave up the third-most points per possession in transition last year, 119 per 100, and this year the team got older over the summer.

With an offense centered around Harden and Embiid, there's only so much the Sixers can speed things up when they have the ball. But if they don't start getting back on defense, their title chances are going to rapidly slip away.

Sean Keane

Sean Keane is a sportswriter and a comedian based in Oakland, California, with experience covering the NBA, MLB, NFL and Ice Cube’s three-on-three basketball league, The Big 3. He’s written for Comedy Central’s “Another Period,” ESPN the Magazine, and Audible. com

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