Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The Most Important Player To The 76ers

With the playoffs approaching the 76ers are the heavy favorite to win the Eastern Conference. They are the most dominating center in basketball with Joel Embiid, and a 6'10 point guard in Ben Simmons. The Sixers also have Tobias Harris, who arguably could've been an all-star this year and Jimmy Butler who is a 4 time NBA all-star. With all of this talent on one roster, the most important player to the Sixers playoff run is JJ Redick. 

JJ Redick is the best 3 point shooter they have, shooting at a 38.4% and making an average of 3 three pointers a game. The 76ers make an average of 11 3 pointer, that means that Redick is responsible for 27% of the 3's made a game. In today's game spacing is everything, and with Ben Simmons you need spacing due to his lack of an outside shot.

Ben Simmons is at his best on a fast-break and when he has space. In the playoffs every team is going to play off Simmons to limit what he can do, they are going to play more to the help. When JJ is in he can run off screens and help open the floor more with his 3 point shooting, creating more of a problem on the defenses. If Redick is hitting it will cause teams to play more tightly on Simmons to prevent the pass to JJ and help Simmons have an easier time to blow past the defender. 

Joel Embiid will have an easier time also with Redick on the floor. With Redick being the best 3 point shooter on the team, he can draw the defenders outside of the paint to help create a more one on one approach of defending to Embiid. Embiid is averaging 27.3 points per game and 13.5 rebounds per game, he's the most dominating center in the league. Embiid is going to be a huge contributing factor for the Sixer's playoff success, but without Redick his job gets a lot harder. 

With the floor spacing being important to shot creators, this only helps Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris. As a shot creator you need as much room as possible to work your defender one on one. Typically teams will play some form of help defense, but with a deadeye 3 point shooter out there this makes it a lot harder to do. With a 3 point shooter, teams will be forced to have their defenders play tighter on them, causing a shot creator to have more of an isolation play.

When JJ Redick was out this season they had Landry Shamet come in and fill his role, running off screens hitting 3's. They don't have that anymore due to a trade prior in the season. Redick can not get hurt as they don't have any insurance in case he does. The Sixers tried to get Wayne Ellington, but he decided to go the Detroit Pistons. This makes Redick's presence a bigger importance as they don't have any true 3 point shooters coming off the bench in case of an injury. 

In the 2017 playoff's, JJ Redick was on the Clippers and they were playing against the Utah Jazz. The Jazz's game-plan was to stop JJ from breaking free and hitting 3's. That plan proved to be successful as they beat the Clippers 4-3 in that series, Redick helps makes other players jobs easier and without him being a factor it only makes their jobs harder. In the 2018 playoff series against the Miami Heat, JJ was unstoppable for the 76ers. He was hitting virtually every 3, averaging 2.6 3's made and 20 points per game. Redick was the MVP that series and the reason why the Sixers made it to the next round.

Redick is one of the clear leaders in the locker room and beloved by his teammates. On the JJ Redick Podcast you can find his teammates on there like Jimmy Butler, Joel Embiid, and Tobias Harris. They do admire his career he has had so far and do seem to have some admiration towards how good of a shooter he is. Redick has talked about how if Ben Simmons needs any help with his jumper, he'll be there to give him tips and he has given him tips.

JJ Redick is one of the best shooters of all time. He was a 3 point specialist with every team he's played for and been the vocal point to many of opposing defenses in the playoffs. If the Sixers want to have a long post-season run they need to incorporate Redick into the offense as much as they can. Redick is averaging a career high 17.9 point per game, with his scoring averages only going up every year. He is the key factor to the Sixers success and his importance shouldn't be devalued. 

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