5 things that went wrong for Philadelphia 76ers in the 2020-21 NBA Season

#3 Doc Rivers’ failure to get the best out of his stars

On paper, the Philadelphia 76ers were one of the best teams in the NBA this season. But Doc Rivers failed to get the best out of the likes of Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, making the 2020-21 NBA season the latest in a series of years in which Rivers has failed to lead high-profile stars to a deeper playoff run.

Scottie Pippen had some THOUGHTS on Ben Simmons (via @GQSports): https://t.co/geU2XdSQsJ pic.twitter.com/3KwzdJF28u

— Bryan Toporek (@btoporek) June 24, 2021

Since leading the Boston Celtics to the Championship in 2008, Rivers has failed to lead an LA Clippers’ team consisting of the likes of Blake Griffin, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to a championship and the pattern seems to be playing itself out at the Philadelphia 76ers’ as well.

Ben Simmons has seen offensive stagnation, while Tobias Harris appears to be an expensive role player. The Philadelphia 76ers might be tempted to make large spread changes in order to contend for the Championship again.

#4 Tobias Harris performing like a role player

In recent weeks, quite a bit has been made of Tobias Harris’ failure to emerge as an integral part of a “big 3” alongside Embiid and Simmons. Harris is on a max $180 million contract with two years left on his deal and last averaged more than 20 points a season during the 2018-19 NBA season.

Philadelphia 76ers v Los Angeles Lakers

Harris simply does not possess the skills to be called a superstar and appears to be raking in more money than he deserves.

After an impressive series against the Washington Wizards, Tobias Harris averaged less than 19 points per game against the Atlanta Hawks, which included a 2-14 shooting performance from the field during their game 4 loss.

#5 Lack of secondary scorers

While Seth Curry was highly impressive during the Playoffs, a number of secondary and bench players did not have the best of time offensively for the Phialdelphia 76ers through the Playoffs this season.

As a matter of fact, Simmons, Curry, Embiid and Tobias Harris produced more than 80%, with Embiid and Seth Curry alone accounting for more than half of the points that the roster scored during the playoffs, despite one of them playing with an injury.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐂𝐚𝐬𝐭 | Friday Deep Dive@brianseltzer, @LaurenMRosen, @devong975 talk role players & how important they are to the team's title chances.🎧⤵️

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) February 12, 2021

Simmons and Harris were expected to be better offensively, but so were the likes of Korkmaz, Tyrese Maxey, Danny Green and Dwight Howard. Matisse Thybulle was in a league of his own defensively.

Regardless, a lack of secondary scorers also played a part in the Philadelphia 76ers’ downfall, with quite a few role players registering subpar performances through the two playoff series.