3 Biggest turn-offs as Celtics’ main guns maul 76ers third unit

With the Philadelphia 76ers resting all of their regular players in the rotation after a tight contest, the Boston Celtics, to the suprise of no one, mauled them in their third preseason outing. The defending champions made light work of the depleted visitors, turning in a margin of victory of 50 points with a 139-89 walloping.

Save for the injured Kristaps Porzingis, the Celtics trotted out their barrage of stars, and the 76ers’ third unit simply cannot overcome the insurmountable talent deficit. Nonetheless, here are the three biggest takeaways from

3. The 76ers absolutely lack natural playmakers beyond their regulars

Beyond Tyrese Maxey, a converted point guard himself, the squad is bereft of natural playmakers. At this point in their careers, Kyle Lowry and Reggie Jackson should not be banked on to handle a full-time, table-setting role, making it crucial for the other guards in the roster to step up and accelerate their growth in that end.

No player logged more than three assists, not even Jeff Dowtin Jr. nor rookie Jared McCain. While this can be tossed up to horrible shooting from the team across the board, they simply failed to muster varied actions that can put them in the position to score against the tight Celtics defense.

As things currently stand, the 76ers would be better off assigning the backup minutes and second-unit playmaking duties to Lowry and/or Jackson. The other options on the roster don’t have enough playmaking reps yet to handle the role off the bench.

2. Philly built bricks in Boston

It’s definitely far from ideal when the nominal center on the team is the lone guy to hit at least 50 percent from downtown. Against Boston, the 76ers third unit, albeit understandable so, hit just 10 out of a staggering 42 attempts, good for a measly 23.8 percent conversion rate.

While this should not be taken too definitively as there’s no chance that the coaching staff will rest all of their regulars when the games start to matter, the fact remains that the 76ers aren’t really rich in shooting depth beyond their usual rotation players.

Save for Guerschon Yabusele, no one expected to wage a good fight for rotation minutes shot the ball well. Ricky Council IV went 2/8 from the three-point line, while McCain made just one triple out of eight tries.

Meanwhile, KJ Martin continues to become negligible outside the paint. As long as he remains a one-tricky pony, it would be hard-pressed to imagine the coaching staff giving him much court time, if any.

1. The 76ers youngins need a much better audition for consistent minutes

As said in the past, the 76ers have a a veteran-heavy rotation. While certainly in-theme with their patent and resounding win-now mandate, the team isn’t exactly known for for its iron men-like composition, with many of their regulars being especially known for their injury-proneness.

Simply put, the team would be much better off being infused with more youth. Having said that, the youngins have not really exhibited any convincing argument to upend their older counterparts in the rotation.

McCain, while deemed a big part of the team’s immediate future, seems poised to linger on the bench for now, or at least to begin the season. Meanwhile, Council has not shown much growth as an off-ball threat to get past Eric Gordon.

Hopefully, these are all mere overreactions to an otherwise expected drubbing. Still, these are actual NBA players, and holding them to a lower standard, even individually, would defeat the purpose of the 76ers doubling down on depth this offseason.