The Philadelphia 76ers are one of the biggest favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference and fight for the NBA title. However, although Brett Brown has a lot of talent at his disposal on the Sixers' roster, they have one glaring weakness.
A lot of the players on their roster are incredibly tall. As of the moment, the only players on their training camp squad who are lower than 6-foot-6 are Zhaire Smith, Matisse Thybulle, Raul Neto and Trey Burke.
While height does well in a lot of basketball situations, the game has evolved where small ball is all the rage. With that said, the Sixers could find themselves in trouble against quick teams.
Fortunately, Brett Brown and his staff are already thinking of ways to deal with it.
“The outliers are sort of premortems … it’s like small ball,” Brown said following Friday’s training-camp practice, per Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “People are going to come and just go tiny and play speed ball, jack threes.”
“It’s such a well-coached league and well-scouted league, I only throw [small ball and zone defense] out there as examples,” Brown said. “I don’t know [what will happen], but what I do know is I’m always thinking about that side of my job so that we can be best prepared.”
They can try to battle speed with speed, but it's unlikely that the Sixers will be able to keep that up for long. Another viable option for them is to stick to their guns and sacrifice either the paint or the 3-point line.
Whatever way they go with their defense, they have to make a choice. If they want to win the Larry O'Brien trophy, they have to show up on defense and coordinate as a team.
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