What the stats say about the 76ers a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 NBA season

Believe it or not, the Philadelphia 76ers are already over a quarter of the way through the 2024-25 NBA season. That's a meaningful sample size of games. 

Obviously, when it comes to the first fourth of the season for the Sixers, their seemingly endless absences must be taken into account. Joel Embiid has played in just a handful of games and Paul George has missed about half of the games. Tyrese Maxey also missed a fistful of games with a hamstring injury. 

Nonetheless, after 20-plus games some trends have emerged regarding the team's style of play, as well as some strengths and weaknesses of the squad. Here's a look at what the stats say about the Sixers so far this season. 

Bottom five in offensive rating: Generating good offense has been a struggle for the Sixers this season, which isn't super surprising when you consider how many games their top three scorers have missed. Still though, the offensive output has been underwhelming. At this point in the season, the Sixes have the fourth-worst offensive rating in the entire NBA, ahead of only the Washington Wizards, New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers. Only the Pelicans are scoring fewer points per performance than Philly (105.2).

A decent defense: Despite their offensive struggles, the Sixers have done decently defensively, especially considering the absences. Embiid and George are the team's top two defensive players, and even with them both missing significant time, the Sixers are 12th league-wide in defensive rating. That number will surely improve if Embiid and George are able to get out on the floor more moving forward. After all, we're talking about an elite rim protecter and one of better perimeter defenders in the league. 

Rebounding remains an issue: Rebounding was a problem for the Sixers in recent campaigns, and it's still an issue this season. As a team, the Sixers are averaging the third-fewest rebounds per game (40.0) in the league and they have the second-lowest rebound percentage, ahead of only the Brooklyn Nets.

Bringing back Andre Drummond was supposed to help in this area, and he's doing his part, averaging 8.3 boards per game. But, the rest of the roster is relatively undersized, and there aren't many players, if any, who would qualify as "good" rebounders for their position. To make up for their lack of size, the Sixers need to prioritize team rebounding; boxing out and actively attacking the defensive glass -- things they haven't done consistently well so far this season. 

Pick up the pace: The Sixers have played at the second-slowest pace in the entire NBA so far this season, ahead of only the Nets. This wouldn't be especially surprising if Embiid had played in most of the games, as they tend to play at a slower pace when the big man is out on the floor, but with him on the sideline, one would think that the Sixers would play with a bit more speed and urgency, especially considering the team's struggles in the half court.

Playing at a quicker pace, especially in the non-Embiid minutes, could potentially help the Sixers generate some additional transition opportunities, and provide them with more overall possessions on offense. For a team near the bottom in offensive efficiency, added possessions could be beneficial.

Low assist total: The Sixers are dead last in the NBA in assists per game as a team with 21.8. The fact that they're shooting just 44 percent from the floor as a team is correlated. The low team assist total is largely due to the fact that the Sixers don't have an elite creator like they did when they had James Harden or even Ben Simmons at his peak.

Maxey is averaging 5.2 assists per performance, but he's still getting acclimated to life as a primary playmaker in the league. George is also averaging 5.2 assists -- he's always been a good playmaker from the forward position. But overall, the Sixers are having a tough time generating good looks consistently, and that's resulting in their low assist and shooting totals.

Some troubling trends have clearly emerged over the first month-and-a-half of the season, but the good news is that there's still plenty of time for the Sixers to correct course. Simply having their top players consistently available would be a major step in the right direction.

All statistics courtesy of NBA.com/stats. 

Follow Michael Kaskey-Blomain on X @therealmikekb.