After nearly two months of inactivity, Philadelphia 76ers fans were treated last night to an experience that should become imminently familiar in the months to come: The Sixers getting destroyed by a much better basketball team. Philly's defense was particularly brutal, as the Wizards found their shooters for open three after open three, ultimately hitting 15-26 from deep on the way to a 129-95 rout in the preseason opener for both teams.
But of course, wins and losses are almost totally meaningless in the preseason, and what Sixers fans should be caring about much more than the team's record is how their young studs looked in action — particularly rookie center Jahlil Okafor and his second-year frontcourt partner, Nerlens Noel. Here's how our dudes fared in their first run of the '15-'16 season.
1. Jahlil Okafor was undoubtedly impressive, hitting his first five shots of the game, mostly on degree-of-difficulty turnaround jumpers and other tough maneuvers. I would've liked to see him getting himself some easier looks, since he's not going to be able to hit some of those shots all season with the regularity he did last night, but he struggled to back down Wizards center Marcin Gortat — who, to be fair, might be the biggest human Jahlil has ever played against at this point in his career — and mostly had to take fadeaways or long hooks. Him making them is undoubtedly cool, and he was certainly effective as an offensive hub for the Ballers last night, but that can't be his bread and butter in the season proper; he's not Dirk Nowitzki.
More encouraging to me was that Okafor looked significantly fitter than he did during Summer League, where he labored up and down the court and was all but useless in transition. Last night, he was moving briskly from end to end, even getting a couple looks on the break. He was also moving his feet much better on defense, able to switch and mostly stay in front of pint-sized guards, while holding his own against Gortat and company in the post, and even earning himself a couple blocks. He fouled a lot, too — four times in 17 minutes — and he was turnover-prone as he was in the summer, but with 12 points and a near break-even (-2) in his on-court plus/minus rating, it was an ultimately solid preseason debut.
2. Playing alongside the Sixers' new face-of-the-franchise for the first time, Nerlens Noel was similarly impressive. He was able to use his athleticism to overwhelm the Wizards' frontcourt, attacking from the top of the key and forcing the W's to scramble to stay in his way. To say his handle looked better than last year would be a gross understatement — I can't believe how fluid he looked with the ball, considering how stone-handed he was for much of his rookie season. The jumper's not there for the Eraser yet, but he powered his way to a 4-8 shooting night, and it could've been even better if he hadn't missed a couple easy ones. Perhaps more importantly, Noel got to the line six times in 22 minutes, and his form at the stripe looked good, hitting 5-6 FTs.
The fit next to Okafor mostly gets a grade of "inconclusive." The two were mostly dominant patrolling the paint on defense — they fouled at a likely unsustainable rate, but they certainly didn't allow much at the basket — but they did have a couple "I don't want to go out there, you go out there" type miscommunications when it came to guarding Washington power forwards on the perimeter, contributing to the Wizards' bounty of uncontested triples. And while both Jahlil and Nerlens were able to get theirs on offense, operating space for both was on the limited side, and their couple attempts to play off one another looked clumsy. Still, it's hard not to get excited about the prospect of watching these two grow together this season — the new Twin Towers era in Philly should be a fun one.
3. Don't pay too much attention to Isaiah Canaan's decent stat line (13 points on on 5-10 shooting with six dimes in 24 minutes), because he was brutal for most of the night. Obviously he's overmatched trying to keep up with (and keep in front of) John Wall and Bradley Beal on the perimeter, but he was also very messy trying to hit his big men in the pick-and-roll or on the move, in particular throwing two of the worst lobs I've ever seen to Nerlens — one of which was too high, one of which was too fast and whipped off the backboard, both of which went for easy turnovers. He did hit some gorgeous jumpers — boy can shoot, unquestionably — but he also missed on some simple floaters and easy looks at the rim. He's got a ways to go to be a point guard in this league.
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4. Robert Covington did Robert Covington things. Eight points on 3-5 shooting, with six boards, three assists, and mostly strong, versatile defense. Pairing him with JaKarr Sampson — who attempted valiantly to cover for Canaan on perimeter D, though he's got to learn to be more judicious attacking the basket one-on-one in the half-court —on the wings is an interesting proposition, since in theory their skill sets should complement each other pretty ideally, as long as Sampson's lack of shooting doesn't cramp the team's frontcourt too much on O. I wouldn't be surprised if Nik Stauskas — who'll miss the next two weeks with an injured tibia — ends up coming off the bench as a de facto sixth man, especially with Tony Wroten also still out.
5. Speaking of the team's bench — they sucked in this one. Scottie Wilbekin sucked. Jordan McRae sucked. Furkan Aldemir suuuuucked. Christian Wood apparently played ten minutes; news to me. Richaun Holmes had a couple nice moments in ten minutes of game action, and J.P. Tokoto cleaned up OK in garbage time, but with Wroten, Stuaskas, Kendall Marshall, Carl Landry and others unavailable to play, depth was not exactly on the Sixers' side last night. Point is: There will be minutes to be had in this rotation this season, so come and get 'em.
The LeBron-less Cavs are up next tomorrow night. Another irrelevant loss is likely headed Philly's way, but whatever: Sixers basketball is back, an not only do we now have reasons to be excited for this team, we actually get to see a couple of them on the court now.