Dario Saric and Robert Covington make the 76ers hum

By nearly any measure, the Philadelphia 76ers have exceeded all reasonable expectations this season. Everybody knew the Sixers were a young team on the rise; stark improvement was widely expected, but a team that young and green was regarded as, at best, a fringe playoff contender in the Eastern Conference. Sneaking into the postseason and bowing out in the first round would have been considered a major achievement, and a surefire sign that they were headed in the right direction. Instead, the Sixers have blown past those benchmarks — they are a surefire playoff team that might get homecourt advantage in the first round, and they have already exceeded their preseason win-total over/under (40.5 wins, per Vegas Insider) with 11 games remaining.

Without question, the single biggest driver of their success has been the health and availability of Joel Embiid. (He has already played more than twice as many minutes this season than he did a year ago.) Embiid is an absolute monster on both ends of the floor, and might already be the most impactful center in the NBA. He is damn near unstoppable in the post; he has range on his jumper; he is a terrific passer; he can get past almost any center off the dribble; he is already one of the best rim-protectors in basketball; and he is fully comfortable defending players in space.

Along with Embiid’s cementing himself as one of the best players in the league, the delayed arrival of Ben Simmons has to be acknowledged as a major factor in Philadelphia’s ascent. Simmons is far better than he has any right to be at this stage of his career — especially when you consider that he is not a threat to score outside the immediate area of the rim. Still, his combination of size, speed, strength, and vision make him a wonderful offensive talent, and those same attributes make him one of the most versatile defenders in all of basketball.

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Those two stars alone would have been more than enough to lift the Sixers to competence and beyond, but it is arguable that they would not have been able to weather the near-season-long absence of Markelle Fultz, the intermittent absences of J.J. Redick, and the less-than-stellar play of their bench without the contributions of forwards Robert Covington and Dario Saric.

That duo has shared the floor for 1,455 minutes this season, per NBA.com, essentially sharing the 3 and 4 spots when they do. During the time they’ve played together, the Sixers have scored points at a rate that would rank third in the NBA behind only the Warriors and Rockets, and defended at a rate that would lead the league. Philadelphia has outscored its opponents by 10.9 points per 100 possessions with Covington and Saric in the game, a Net Rating more than a full point better than even Golden State’s league-best mark.

When Covington and Saric play alongside both Embiid and Simmons, the Sixers are even better. Across 784 minutes, Philadelphia has played NBA-best offense and defense, demolishing teams by an absurd 17.7 points per 100 possessions with that foursome in the game. If there is a more encouraging sign for the Sixers’ future, I’m not sure what it is. (Covington and Saric even appear to have some measure of impact on Embiid, who seems otherwise impervious to teammate-driven fluctuations in scoring margin; per Cleaning the Glass, the Sixers’ Net-Rating drops from plus-16.9 points per 100 possessions when he plays alongside both of them to plus-6.7 points per 100 possessions when he plays without either of them on the floor.)

Each of them possesses arguably the most important traits needed to surround two star players like Embiid and Simmons — size, switchability, and shooting. Covington stands 6-foot-9 and has a 7-foot wingspan. Saric is 6-foot-10 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan. They are both more capable of defending either forward spot (though Covington has a much wider range of players against whom he can defend at an above-average level), stout enough to switch onto any big in the post, and light enough on their feet to capably handle guards at the end of possessions.

“The switchability,” Sixers coach Brett Brown told The Step Back, when asked about the most valuable thing his young forward combo brings to the team. “It’s been the thing that has let us be, you know, fourth, third, fifth most of the year defensively. And then you have Joel behind it, the world changes. I think this is part of the modern game. Do you have a team that can switch? The length of those two and you throw in Simmons, I feel like that has helped us.”

That length and versatility shows up not just in the Sixers’ overall defensive numbers, but also in some of the more granular Second Spectrum data on NBA.com, which is particularly kind to Covington.

Philadelphia is one of just two teams in the league that boasts three players contesting at least 3.5 3-point shots per game. (Simmons, Saric, and Covington, natch.) Covington ranks second in the NBA in deflections per game, while the Sixers rank fifth as a team. Covington also serves as one of the NBA’s premier defensive stoppers: he ranks second among all forwards in the percentage of his defensive possessions on which he defends the opposing team’s leader in usage rate. He also ranks second in the percentage of possession on which he defends the opposing team’s leader in offensive RPM. Not only that but Sixers opponents have attempted fewer shots and connected at a lower rate both at the rim and from 3-point range with Covington on the floor compared to when he’s on the bench.

On the other end of the floor, Covington has assumed his familiar floor-stretching role, knocking down a career-best 37.8 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc while hoisting nearly seven per game. Saric, meanwhile, has slid into a more comfortable role as a secondary pick-and-roll option and quick-trigger closeout-beater thanks to the presence of Simmons as a ball-dominant offensive general. Saric passed up too many jumpers in favor of trying to make a play for someone else down the line last year, and while his relative reluctance to shoot was somewhat justified by his 31 percent conversion rate from 3, his turning down those shots also prevented the Philadelphia offense from humming at peak efficiency. So, Brett Brown sent him home last summer with a homework assignment: get real comfortable knocking down catch-and-shoot 3s, because you’re going to get a lot of them.

“I think he’s responded to the single sort of focus offensively that we gave him from Day 1. His ability to make 3s is gonna greatly increase his value and benefit to the team,” Brown says. “He plays with such a motor. Just watch him attack an offensive rebound. I think that when we watch players and you talk about effort, just pure effort — do they care? Watch him. He’s hard to box out. He wants to fulfill his role. And the 3-point shot, offensively, has been the thing that we’ve discussed. And his form and his footwork, his release point, his lack of hesitation, just rise up if you’re open — he’s 6-foot-10 — all of those things have equaled an improved shooter.”

Saric is up to 40 percent from 3 on over five attempts per game, and his ability to connect from outside has helped free up space not only for Embiid and Simmons inside, but also for Saric’s own drive-based attacks. He’s made 67 percent of his shots within three feet of the basket this year, up from 60 percent a year ago. Covington has seen a similar jump, making a career-best 65 percent of his shots inside three feet.

It should come as no surprise that both Covington and Saric have had positive effects on Embiid and Simmons’ offensive performance. It certainly doesn’t surprise Brown.

“I saw it for years where Robert Horry was Tim Duncan’s best friend,” he says. “You got Covington and the way Dario’s been shooting it, they end up being very flattering classmates — teammates — to Ben and Joel because the defense doesn’t leave them very often.”

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Embiid has shot six percentage points better in the restricted area with Covington on the floor than off, and those shots have made up a greater percentage of his attempts with Covington in the game as well. (He’s shot two percentage points better in close with Saric on the floor.) Simmons has similarly connected at a better rate inside with Saric in the game, but more importantly, almost 10 percent more of his shots have come in the restricted area with Saric in than when he’s been out. The effect is not quite as strong with Covington, but Simmons has still gotten a noticeable uptick in his rate of close shots when that additional shooter is out there.

Neither Covington nor Saric is capable of carrying the load on either end without Embiid or Simmons in the game, but that’s OK. Not everybody can (or has to) be the star. Every contender needs to support its building-block stars with well-fitting players that just know their role and play it well. The Sixers already have two.