Does this new Sixers roster fit together? The numbers tell some interesting stories.

Transition: Plays in the fast break, or any non-halfcourt possession (think Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo)

Isolation: Where a player isolates a player 1-on-1 (think James Harden)

Pick-and-roll ball handler: When a player who is leading the pick-and-roll finishes the play himself (think Kemba Walker, Damian Lillard)

Pick-and-roll rollman: When a player who actually sets the pick gets the ball out of a pick-and-roll. So this can either be a pick-and-pop, where they space out for a jump shot, or roll to the rim, or catch an alley-oop off a pick-and-roll (think Myles Turner, Serge Ibaka, Clint Capela). This play type is a bit muddled because efficiencies vary between rim runners and floor spacers. Obviously, players who are catching lobs and dunking are going to naturally have a higher points-per-possession than some of the pick-and-pop guys. Synergy stats, unfortunately, do not break this out

Post-up: Old school, back your man down and throw up a hook, floater, dunk, fadeaway, etc (think Joel Embiid)

Spot-up: Not just catch-and-shoots, but any play where the primary action has started (think an isolation, or pick-and-roll) and then the ball is swung to someone else who then shoots or drives to the hoop after catching the ball. If a player gets swung the ball and then takes a couple dribbles to back it out and start another move, this will be classified as an isolation

Handoff: Kind of like a pick-and-roll, but when the one player actually hands the ball off to another. As an example, think about the Embiid-to-J.J Redick handoffs

Cut: Any kind of off ball movement where a player either cuts to or away from the basket: UCLA cut, v-cut, etc. These also can be alley-oops to the rim that don’t start off in a pick-and-roll

Off-screen: When a player catches the ball from an off-ball screen and then shoots or drives off this action (think Klay Thompson and Steph Curry).

Points Per Possession is a measure of how efficient a player is at that specific play type.

PPP (Points Per Possession) Percentile measures how they compare to the rest of the league in points per possession.

Possessions Per Game measures how often a player uses this play type per game.

PPG (Possessions Per Game) Percentile measures how they compare to the rest of the league in possessions per game of that play type.

Ben Simmons: In the playoffs we saw Butler’s role here increased as Simmons was delegated more and more to the dunker role underneath the basket. Now, though, he will have to be more aggressive in leading this offense. If we look at his pick-and-roll ball handling numbers he’s actually at 80th percentile in efficiency but he doesn’t do it very often (33rd percentile in possessions per game). He also doesn’t even qualify on isolations (he had less than 1 per game).

Tobias Harris: While Ben’s jumper is still coming up to speed, I think Tobias will be tasked with the main duties of creation on the perimeter. Tobi has shown promise in these areas with 78th percentile in isolation and 67th percentile in PPP as a pick-and-roll ball handler. This is on a reasonable amount of attempts per game (around 50th percentile). With Butler gone, Tobias is going to need to turn up those possessions per game even more, particularly in a game’s closing moments.

Josh Richardson: Newcomer Josh Richardson showed promise last season in Miami, as Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters were sidelined at the beginning of the season. He was tasked to do a lot of ball handling and was in the 76th percentile in possessions per game as the pick and roll ball handler.

Redick was not only his lethal self coming off screens but on all the dribble handoffs Brett Brown used to love to run with him. J.J ranked No. 1 last season in those kinds of plays at 5.2 per game. But Richardson came in at sixth (92nd percentile) in handoff possessions per game on a very solid efficiency (1.01 Points per Possession, 72nd percentile). While Richardson is far from the shooter J.J. is, and doesn’t draw nearly as much attention on those types of plays, having someone with that skill set will meld nicely into Brown’s system.

Al Horford: One of Horford’s main strengths as an offensive player is his shooting ability, particularly his ability to thrive as a pick-and-pop option, as evidenced by his possessions per game (96th percentile in the league) as the pick-and-roll rollman. He does this at a little bit better than league average efficiency (56th percentile), but this play type is a bit deceiving because it includes both pick-and-pop and pick-and-roll. The latter is generally a higher-efficiency look. We know Brown doesn’t like to run many pick-and-rolls, but with the emerging pick-and-roll play of Simmons, Harris, and Richardson, this can be something they can utilize more.

Joel Embiid: As Embiid struggled with his three-point shot for the second year in a row (30%), his pick-and-pop remained uninspiring (14th percentile, on players who used this play type at least once a game). Embiid also loves to pump fake on these plays and drive to the basket. He frequently gets stripped or loses the ball when he puts the ball on the floor.

With the Sixers’ huge starting lineup, they obviously have a lot of guys who like to post up - 99th (Embiid), 81st (Simmons), and 54th percentile (Horford), respectively. With the lack of floor spacing, look for Horford post-ups to probably drop and for him to work as more of a floor spacer. Simmons’ efficiency on post-ups (11th percentile) is way too low for how often he does it - almost 3.5 possessions per game (81st percentile). Post-ups are generally a low-efficiency play - we know how much of a monster Embiid is here at 89th percentile in efficiency at over 8 post-ups per game (99th percentile).

Ben Simmons: We know about Ben Simmons struggles in the half court due to his lack of shooting, so it is not surprising he is among the league leaders in transition frequency (95th percentile). But his efficiency is not good here (12th percentile out of those with at least 1 transition play per game). Some of this probably can be attributed to forcing some looks in transition that others normally wouldn’t. Additionally, when Simmons can’t get all the way to the rim and dunk, he throws up odd-looking floaters. Even when he does get all the way to the rim, his layup mechanics are sometimes less than ideal and he misses some easy ones. This data doesn’t take into account Simmons’ playmaking for others on the fast break.

All play type data courtesy of NBA.com

True Shooting % and Usage % data courtesy of basketball-reference

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