PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia 76ers season came to a dramatic and disappointing close when the Atlanta Hawks came into the Wells Fargo Center and knocked off the top seed in Game Seven.
Despite being favored and blowing big leads in both Games Five and Seven, the Sixers will now enter the offseason with a ton of questions.
In the aftermath of the team's loss, All-Star guard Ben Simmons has been heavily scrutinized, after failing to tally a shot attempt in the fourth quarter of each of the team's final three games against the Hawks.
Now, it's uncertain if he will remain with Philadelphia through the NBA's off season.
Locked On Sixers host Keith Pompey broke down where it went wrong against the Hawks, what the future of Ben Simmons may be, and what this team needs to do this offseason to advance further in the playoffs next season.
Here is a snippet of that conversation:
CALE AHEARN: Last time we spoke, you had mentioned lapses and that the Sixers had had their fair amount of lapses. I think it's fair to say those lapses continued.
Was there a point you got the sense that this series went off the rails?
KEITH POMPEY: I guess when they lost Game Five.
I thought the series was going to go off the rails at that particular time.
Then, they got the must win in Game Six and came home, and then when Game Seven came around, I expected the intensity level to be a whole lot higher than what it was from the Sixers.
And when I realized that it wasn't, I'm like, "Uh oh, we could be in trouble here. I mean, we could really be in trouble."
And as it turned out, they ended up losing that game.
CA: If you could say what one area cost the Sixers the most in their playoff area, what would that be?
KP: Wow, that's a tough question because there was a lot off different things.
I have to say poor shooting and turnovers.
It's really not one area -- it's two.
It was the poor shooting and turnovers down the stretch in key situations.
I think that, if you look at it, you see how many missed shots the Sixers had from Joel Embiid in the second half, Tobias Harris, and Ben Simmons not shooting at all... then, you look at the turnovers and you factor that in, and you say to yourself, "if they would've made just half of those shots that they missed, they would've won that series."
So, I believe that it was the offensive shortcomings, the shooting, is what really doomed the 76ers.
CA: In what seems to be an annual event, it was announced that Ben Simmons is going to spend his summer working on his game and looking to make improvements.
Do you have any confidence that this is going to produce results for him at the start of next season?
KP: I don't. I don't.
Check out the full interview in the clip above.
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