Hope in numbers for Sixers

DURING THE Sam Hinkie and Brett Brown era, the Sixers' most known quality outside of all of the losses they have piled up is their lightning-quick pace. Based on offensive possessions per game, the Sixers played at the league's seventh-fastest pace this past season and the fastest in the entire NBA in 2013-14.

That heightened pace leads to more possessions each game for the Sixers and their opponents, leading to inflated points-per-game totals. To see through the noise and discrepancies that causes, it's best to look at team performance through offensive and defensive rating, which illustrate how many points a team scores or surrenders per 100 possessions.

Is it better for a team to give up 90 points on 90 possessions or 91 points on 100 possessions? The latter scenario is a much more efficient defensive team and displays why per-possession statistics are in vogue in the NBA, while casting away more traditional numbers.

The Sixers were tied for 12th in the league in defensive rating last season, yielding 102.1 points per 100 possessions. They fell just behind Tom Thibodeau's Chicago Bulls (101.5) and tied with the Utah Jazz. The perception of those other teams and their defenses and that of Brown's unit only serves to highlight how overlooked last season's team was on the defensive side of the court.

Thibodeau, who was fired at season's end for his clashing, overly intense coaching style, helped pioneer the currently popular switch-heavy defensive scheme, something the Sixers, the league champion Golden State Warriors and others emulated successfully last season. Thibodeau did so as the defensive guru of Doc Rivers' Celtics teams.

There is the Jazz, whose 19-10 post-All-Star Game record painted Utah as an up-and-coming threat to the Western Conference playoff picture because of the fierce rim protection of Rudy Gobert. That second-half surge left Gobert, a 7-2 Frenchman nicknamed the "Stifle Tower," fifth in the league's Defensive Player of the Year voting and with a mountain of hype higher than the French Alps about him being the game's next premier defensive center.

Thibodeau rightfully deserves praise for constantly maximizing on-court defensive effort from his players, as does Gobert for becoming a force in the paint, leading the entire league in block rate - he swatted 7 percent of his opponents' shots while he was on the court. This Sixers team should still be mentioned in the same breath as Chicago and Utah defensively.

Thinking that a Sixers team so horrid offensively should be at least above-average defensively is a fair argument, but that undercuts the strides Brown has made while turning a young roster consisting mostly of D-League veterans into a cohesive unit that prides itself on effort and team defense.

More important, Brown has led Nerlens Noel on a path to defensive stardom.

Philadelphia might be used to big men who dominate on both sides of the court, such as Wilt Chamberlain and Moses Malone, from glory years that feel like centuries ago. But it's not hyperbole to think that Noel could have the defensive impact that Dikembe Mutombo once had while playing with Allen Iverson or Tyson Chandler had as the defensive anchor and second-best player on the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks next to Dirk Nowitzki.

Noel's wiry frame, once his biggest knock as an NBA prospect, has secretly been a blessing. Sure, it's not helping him pulverize opposing bigs on the low block offensively, but that's an unrealistic expectation for the former Kentucky Wildcat. Where it does aid him is in his quest to become one of the NBA's elite defensive stars.

Those long, quick arms allow him to switch out and guard players on the perimeter, in addition to protecting the paint, as he racks up both gaudy steal and block numbers. Noel's steal rate of 2.9 percent and block rate of 5 percent last season were a historic combination. The last three players with swift enough to nab that many steals and strong enough to swat that many shots are Andrei Kirilenko, who accomplished the feat three times, David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon, who did so twice, per Basketball-Reference.

So, for reference, Noel caused havoc and turnovers last season with the same propensity as the most versatile defender of the 21st century and two of the greatest centers of all time. He was also a rookie who couldn't legally buy a drink until April.

There will, however, be an adjustment period to begin this season just as there have been in the past two years with a roster that has seen so much upheaval. Jahlil Okafor will present fit issues with Noel on both ends of the court. The Sixers will miss Luc Mbah a Moute's leadership and defensive versatility.

It will continue to take time to build a roster worthy of a true contender, but at least Brown and Noel have given this team an identity - a scrappy, hustling core led by an all-world defender with a goofy grin a and flattop haircut - for the ride there.