Philadelphia 76ers need more shooting, despite Joel Embiid absence

The Philadelphia 76ers reportedly want to acquire more shooting … or any shooting to begin with … and that doesn’t change with Joel Embiid’s injury.

Thursday was a busy day for the Philadelphia 76ers. It started with trade rumors — inevitable inside a month from the deadline. That was followed by injury news involving franchise player Joel Embiid, who will miss at least one to two weeks following surgery schedule for Friday to repair a torn radial collateral ligament in his left ring finger.

ESPN’s Tim Bontemps reported the Embiid news about an injury the All-NBA center sustained during Monday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The injury was a grisly one, with Embiid’s finger basically perpendicular to his hand, but he returned to the game and finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in 33 minutes.

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Non-medical medical experts on social media and other Internet outlets were very quick to pile onto 76ers coach Brett Brown for putting Embiid back into the game Monday, with the working theory being that decision made by Brown — and Brown alone — exacerbated the injury. Because, you know, the team medical staff would have no input at all in such a situation.

Yes, that was sarcastic, just for the record.

Then Thursday night, Philadelphia improved to 3-0 on the season against their arch rivals, the Boston Celtics, coming back from an early 15-point deficit for a 109-98 win, holding Boston to just 43 points in the second half.

It was a big night for Al Horford, who will slide over from the 4 to the 5 in Embiid’s absence. Horford finished with 17 points, eight rebounds (five offensive), six assists and two blocks in 32 minutes, hitting 7-of-11 overall and going 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

That sort of efficiency has been rare this season for Horford, who is shooting a career-worst 45.8 percent this season, his first with the 76ers.

The Horford-Embiid pairing, in particular, has struggled to get out of its own way. In 403 minutes together, the pair — one a current All-NBA player and the other a former selection — has a positive net rating, but only a plus-2.4 per 100 possessions.

By comparison, the far less star-packed pairing of Embiid and backup forward Mike Scott has a net rating of plus-11.3 in 407 minutes.

Horford is shooting 34.8 percent from 3-point range on 3.9 attempts per game, so spacing with Embiid (32.2 percent on 3.8 3 balls per game) and Ben Simmons (takes a 3 with the same regularity as Halley’s Comet appears in the sky) is an issue.

But the need for shooting extends to the rest of the squad as well. Philadelphia is making 36.3 percent from deep, slightly above the league average of 35.4 percent, but its 29.9 attempts per game is 25th in the NBA.

Josh Richardson takes the most 3s, making 35.3 percent of 5.0 attempts per game. Of players that qualify for the league lead, reserve Furkan Korkmaz is their best deep shooter at 38.4 percent on 4.2 attempts per game, though rookie Matisse Thybulle has hit 44.9 percent on 2.2 tries a night.

Jalen Rose weighed in on recent comments by Embiid that the Sixers need to take open shots when they get them.

So it’s not entirely shocking to hear that 76ers general manager Elton Brand has been working the phones looking for more shooting.

Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer reported Thursday the team has shown interest in floor spacers such as Malik Beasley of the Denver Nuggets, Glenn Robinson III of the Golden State Warriors, Davis Bertans of the Washington Wizards and E’Twaun Moore of the New Orleans Pelicans.

There has also been reported interest in potential reunions, with both Andre Iguodala and Robert Covington rumored to be on the list of prospects Philly is pursuing.

Iguodala was a lottery pick of the 76ers back in 2004 and played his first eight seasons there before being traded to the Nuggets in 2012. Covington signed with the 76ers early in the 2014-15 season, shortly after the undrafted free agent had been waived by the Houston Rockets. With the Sixers, Covington became an All-Defensive selection in 2017-18.

But he was part of the package sent to the Minnesota Timberwolves that brought in rent-a-Butler (Jimmy Butler) last season. O’Connor reported in December the Timberwolves were entertaining offers for Covington.

The problem for the 76ers is they are (a) short on trade assets and (b) really attached to the big contracts they have, which is why the names on their target list are more out of the bargain bin than the name-brand items.

To get a star/superstar caliber player in, Brand would either have to give up Harris, Horford, Embiid or Simmons (who becomes a big-ticket next season), or possibly package Richardson with other smaller deals to get a match, but that sort of a move would gut the team’s already suspect depth.

If you’re looking for expiring deals to move, don’t look at Philadelphia. They have three — all veteran’s minimum deals — belonging to Kyle O’Quinn, Raul Neto and Trey Burke.

According to Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights, the 76ers are $19.25 million over the cap already, with $4.25 million remaining under the luxury tax apron.

The Sixers are one of 15 NBA teams not operating this season under a hard cap, so they do have some flexibility, but ownership would likely prefer not to go into the tax this season since they will almost certainly be living there when Simmons’ max extension kicks in next season.

Based on the guaranteed deals on their books for 2020-21, Philadelphia is already more than $5 million above the projected tax level of $141 million. Add in the non-guaranteed deals of Jonah Bolden and Korkmaz and that figure swells to $8.55 million.

The 76ers’ first-round pick in 2020 is already committed to Brooklyn, via the Clippers, but is lottery protected through 2022. They also have a top-20 protected first-round pick from Oklahoma City, via Orlando, to work with, as well as their own first-rounders through 2026.

Philadelphia reportedly would be willing to move Zhaire Smith, the 16th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft. He hasn’t made an appearance on the court this season for the 76ers, but has gotten into 14 games for their Delaware G League affiliate.

It’s also important to note that Embiid is being re-evaluated in one to two weeks, but that is likely not the timetable for a return.

This is a difficult situation for the 76ers. A trade for another floor-spacer/shooter would seem to be the logical move, but Philadelphia’s contract situations and assets make that option difficult to navigate at best.

Perhaps Brown needs to challenge Simmons to take more 3s again, because it worked so well the last time. For the history on this, Brown last month called on Simmons to take at least one 3 per game. Simmons has attempted five 3-pointers … total … in 37 appearances this season, an average of 0.1 per game. Move the decimal point one place and Simmons is right there.

In Thursday’s win over the Celtics, Philadelphia was an efficient 11-of-27 from deep, 40.7 percent, with Harris, Richardson and Korkmaz each letting loose with five attempts. Korkmaz hit three, Harris two and Richardson one.