Brett Brown on his 0-11 Sixers: ‘This team is built to turn the ball over’
The Philadelphia 76ers were designed to do a lot of things. Save money, for one, lose games, and create an unending batch of sympathy as 29 other NBA coaches watch the much-respected Brett Brown work with a roster that fields two raw big men prospects next two a series of future 10th men.
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On Monday the Sixers hosted the Dallas Mavericks, a pretty good (6-4, entering the contest) team and average defensive club that nevertheless ranked amongst the worst teams in the NBA when it came to forcing turnovers.
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As is usually the case, the 76ers helped Dallas turn that frown upside down. Philly coughed up 27 turnovers in its 92-86 loss to the Mavs:
According to the coach, this is just about by design:
Philly is working without point men Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten, but that just about says it all regarding the team’s sorry state of affairs.
Marshall averages around a 25 percent turnover rate on his career – a mark that places him amongst the worst of the NBA’s brick-handed big men, to say nothing of his fellow point guard fellowship. And Wroten (currently in the D-League, rehabbing alongside Marshall), a rambunctious sort recovering from an ACL tear, is only slightly better with a turnover rate that would still rank him in the dregs of the point guard lot.
Guards Nik Stauskas and T.J. McConnell aren’t natural point guards, but they only combined to turn the ball over five times in 50 minutes of play – it was big man Nerlens Noel that was the team’s top turnover man, finishing the night with five. Still, Stauskas missed all four of his shots and is now shooting 31 percent on the season, while McConnell’s four miscues tied two other Sixers for second on the team.
The Sixers have yet to win in 11 tries this season, and they have a 21-game losing streak dating back to 2014-15. The team is set to play Indiana on Wednesday in hopes of turning everything around, but the Pacers are one of the league’s better teams when it comes to forcing turnovers.
This misery doesn’t figure to end any time soon.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
