The 2012 Philadelphia 76ers do so many things well, it feels almost unfair to knock them for what they don't do well. Rebounding is an issue, interior depth is one as well, but the Granddaddy of them all is foul shooting. And until I took a look at the numbers, I didn't realize just how terrible things are in that department.

As far back as Basketball Reference can remember (1946), there have been only two teams with a winning percentage over .500 to average 20 or less free throw attempts per game and they've both been in the last decade. The San Antonio Spurs of 2008-09, who finished dead last in the league with 20.01 attempts on average, and the 2005-06 Phoenix Suns, led by Mike D'Antoni the year Amar'e Stoudemire missed the season, who also finished at the bottom of the NBA, with an average of just 17.99 free throws per game. Both teams, strangely enough, ended the season with a 54-28 record, a .659 winning percentage.

The Sixers this season have attempted 474 foul shots in 25 games for an average of 18.96 per outing. That only puts them 26th in the league. All of the other teams are under .500 except the Houston Rockets, who boast an even lower 18.64 FTs per game. The Rockets are 14-11, good for a .560 winning percentage thus far. What the Sixers are doing - shooting an abysmally low amount of foul shots, yet winning almost three-quarters of their games (.720) - is unprecedented in basketball history. Yes, they're a terrific defensive team, and yes, they're taking care of the basketball at an equally-historic rate, but if they don't get to the line more often, they will not get far into the postseason. In the more immediate sense, those numbers indicate that the rate at which the Sixers are winning is unsustainable.

While the Spurs lost in the first round to the Mavericks in the '09 playoffs, the Suns' unique offense under D'Antoni actually made it to the Western Conference Finals, where they also lost to the Dallas Mavericks (in a great series). The Sixers are equally unique of a team, but without the shooters the Suns have, it's extremely worrisome to think of what happens when shots stop falling for a few games. Getting to the foul line for free points (something only Louis Williams does reasonably well), is crucial to a team's long-term success because they will eventually go cold.

We'll see if the Sixers can find themselves at the stripe more as the season goes on or if they can keep defying the tremendous odds against them that this will not keep working.

1. Long Two Pointers: Long two pointers are the most inefficient shot in basketball. The Sixers lead the league in forcing opponents to take jumpers from 16-23 feet at 26.2 attempts per game, in which they convert at a 32% rate. Unfortunately, the Sixers are fifth in the NBA in shooting long twos themselves, attempting 25.6 per game, in which they shoot 41%.

2. Shots at the Rim: The Sixers rank 26th in the league in shot attempts at the rim (21.5), but shoot a league best 71%. Evan Turner leads the team, with an absurd and unsustainable 97% conversion rate on shots at the basket. League average is 63%.

3. Player Efficiency Rating: The Sixers have eight players who play at least 13 minutes per game who have a PER higher than the league average of 15. Lou Williams leads the team at 22.9.

4. Free Throw Deficiency: The four players who man the power forward and center spots for the Sixers (Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic) average 5.7 free throw attempts per game. Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, Blake Griffin, Amar'e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani are big men who average more free throws per game than the entire Sixers front court. Andrea Bargnani!

5. Jrue Holiday's Free Throw Rate: Jrue Holiday attempts 13.4 shots per game. Jrue Holiday attempts 1.9 free throws per game. His FTA/FGA ratio (also know as free throw rate) is 14%. You know who also has a 14% FTA/FGA ratio? Willie Green, who's historically atrocious at taking jumpers and not getting to the line. Don't turn into Willie Green, Jrue! For perspective, Jrue's FTR was 21% last year – league average is 30%.

We invite you to follow Liberty Ballers on Twitter and like Liberty Ballers on Facebook.

The Nuggets and Sixers split the four factors, which comes as no surprise since the game came down to the wire. The Sixers rarely out-offensive rebound their opponents, when they accomplished easily last night. They also rarely have a higher free throw rate, and last night was no different. The Sixers are 22nd in the NBA in free throw rate through 14 games – that's a number I'd like to see increase, especially with guards who are supposed to be attacking the rim in Lou, Jrue, Evan and Andre.

The Sixers only have two players average four or more free throw attempts per game. The four players who split the front court dutues (Elton Brand, Spencer Hawes, Thaddeus Young and Nikola Vucevic) average a combined 5.7 free throws per game. That's unacceptable. The Sixers are going to have to get more production from their big men, both at the line and in the paint.

The other stat we like to look at in these advanced box scores is shot attempts at the rim. The Nuggets attempted 25 to the Sixers 21, which isn't so bad. However; the Sixers attempted a mind-boggling 41 (!) shots from 16-23 feet, compared to only 20 from the Nuggets. Long twos are, by far, the most inefficient shot in basketball and more than 40% of the Sixers attempts were of that variety. Jrue was 2-9, Turner was 3-8, Thad was 4-8, Brand was 2-7 and Iguodala was 1-6 – way too many long twos guys.

I hate to keep bashing Jrue, but he has to attack the rim. He had one attempt at the basket last night and only two free throws. On the bright side, Evan Turner was 3-3 at the rim, attempted five free throws and had three And1s.

Andre Iguodala racked up an impressive five assists that led to dunks or layups for his teammates, but Andre Miller led the game with seven (!). That's an absurd number for one game. Last night was basically Andre Miller saying "anything you can do, I can do better" to the entire Sixers team. Tom Moore also informed us via Twitter that Miller whispered Iguodala's free throw percentage in Dre's ear before his clutch free throw attempts. #AndreMillerSwag.

-- Advanced Box Score

When the Sixers traded Marreese Speights to the Memphis Grizzlies for essentially nothing, most people saw that as a waste of a talent. It was. Speights as a ton of ability, highlighted by his jump shot and offensive rebounding ability. But though the Sixers didn't gain much, they didn't lose anything from their roster either, because Mo was never going to get significant time under coach Doug Collins.

Why? Because Mo doesn't play defense, doesn't pass, and doesn't score efficiently. And that has not, and will not change with the Grizzlies or any other team that gambles on the Gator forward with minimal basketball IQ and, if interviewers and twitters are to be believed, minimal old fashioned IQ as well.

Last night, Speezy scored 16 points and pulled in 12 rebounds in a Memphis win over the Derrick Rose-less Bulls. The Lazies would say "DOUBLE DOUBLE HEY GREAT GAME!" and commend Speights for his terrific performance. More specifically, Philadelphia Lazies are saying "EY COLLINS WHYDJA TRADE HIM HE COUDLA BEEN ARE BEST BIG MAN YA BUM!" And unfortunately, regardless of the fancy explanations I'm about to come up with, these baseless arguments comprise of 99% of the sports universe. Either way, in the face of that disadvantage, I'm going to give it a shot after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Much has been made of Evan Turner's previously ugly jump shot and the work he did with Hall of Fame shooting coach Herb Magee this summer. Earlier this year our own Derek Bodner analyzed the mechanics of ET's new-look jumper during the pre-season. His form was clearly improving.

Regardless, the mechanics of the [new] jump shot are visible. His balance is good, feet are shoulder width apart, and he goes up straight. His strong hand is at a 90 degree angle and his off hand is on the left hand side of the ball, giving him much better follow through and rotation on his ball.

And Turner was seeing results.

Turner averaged 14.5 points on 44.4% from the field in his two preseason games, shooting 7-15 on jump shots beyond 10 feet, including a three pointer.

Now that we're 10 games into the regular season, has Turner's improved form continued to pay dividends? The early returns say no. Turner's field goal percentage on the season is 47 – up from 43 last season – but let's take a look at the breakdown in shot locations.

Continue reading this post »

Kate Fagan's latest piece highlights the importance of Spencer Hawes' passing ability to the Sixers offense, citing the stagnant offense from last night in his absence. While I agree the added dimension Spencer adds to the offense is important, I don't think it's as black and white as "see what happens to the offense without Spencer".

Yes, the Sixers missed Hawes against the Knicks last night, but I think tired legs on a tripleback contributed to the stagnant offense more than anything. Replacing Spencer with the ageless Tony Battie and rookie Nik Vucevic (on the road) didn't help.

According to Basketball Value, the Sixers offense has actually been more efficient this season with Hawes on the bench. (Offensive rating with Hawes = 102, Offensive rating without Hawes = 112) These aren't intended to falsify the idea that Spencer is important to the offense, just something to think about. The separate ratings should not be viewed in a vacuum either, because it isn't as simple as saying "Team A is better when Player X is off the court, therefore Player X must suck." Variables such as Spencer playing the majority of his minutes with Jodie Meeks and Elton Brand (two of the Sixers least effective players this season) rather than Thaddeus Young (the highest adjusted +/-) and the rest of the night shift play into the numbers.

The offense was also more efficient with Spencer on the bench last season, and he was still the same passer he is today.

While Spencer is important to the offense and the team as a whole, and playing out of his mind this season, let's not go overboard.

We invite you to follow Liberty Ballers on Twitter and like Liberty Ballers on Facebook.

A few days ago Michael posted about Meeks starting over Turner, which sparked a pretty lively discussion in the comments. Now I'm probably one of ET's biggest supporters and I'd love to see him succeed as an NBA starter, but it's in the team's best interest to leave Turner on the bench and Meeks in the starting lineup.

This is not an indictment on Turner, nor an endorsement for Meeks, but rather an analysis of the unit as a whole. Using our resources over at Basketball Value, we see that eight five-man units have played 10 or more minutes for the Sixers this season. The only lineup with a net negative – Holiday, Turner, Iguodala, Brand and Hawes – is the starting lineup the Sixers would trot out if Turner replaced Meeks. That lineup has played 12 minutes and been outscored 21-14. The sample size is extremely small, which is why I went back to last season for further evidence.

The lineup of Holiday-Turner-Iguodala-Brand-Hawes played 111 combined minutes last season. They were outscored 211-235. Of the 10 most-used lineups during last year's regular season, this lineup was the second worst in terms of production – the only lineup that was less effective involved Andres Nocioni.

For whatever reason, replacing Meeks with Turner in the starting lineup– all else equal – has proven to be an ineffective strategy over the past two seasons. Turner's clearly the better player, better prospect and a more important part of the franchise's future, but like Michael said, as long as he's playing enough minutes, developing properly and finishing games everyone should be fine with Turner coming off the bench. He, along with the Boss and Thad are one of the most prolific pine-riding threesomes in the NBA.

The Sixers won all four of the four factors against the Pistons in their home opener, so it should come as no surprise that they won by a final of 96-73.

As always, the first stat we look at in the advanced box score is shot attempts at the rim. The Sixers converted 17 of 25; the Pistons converted 20 of 28. Once again the Sixers were out-shot by their opponent at the basket, and the Sixers only attempted two more free throws. I'd like to see the Sixers out-shoot their opponent at the rim more often as the season continues.

Another troubling trend is the shot selection of Jrue Holiday. Of his nine shots tonight, four were three point attempts, four were long two pointers and one was at the basket, and he attempted zero free throws. Jrue has shown he can get to the basket with relative ease when he's in attack mode, but he's settling for jumpers this season.

On the bright side Thaddeus Young temporarily bagged his jumper and attempted nine shots at the rim, converting seven.

Spencer Hawes continues to rebound at a ridiculous rate.

-- Advanced Box Score