PHILADELPHIA — A familiar but forgotten face provided one of the more thought-provoking moments to come out of the Sixers’ annual pre-training camp media day on Monday. Somebody asked Shake Milton whether he had a good feel for what his role was going to be this season, and the fifth-year guard responded the only way he could have.
Well, not really.
“It’s crazy with the season happening, so much can change, so much can happen, it’s just up to you to kind of be ready and embrace anything that comes your way, especially coming off the bench and being in the second unit role,” said Milton, who has averaged 20-plus minutes per game in each of the last three seasons. “I know I’m going to be one of the leaders in that second unit so it’s kind of up to me to make sure guys are in the right spot, especially having some new guys join the team. So I’m excited for the challenge.”
Here’s the thought-provoking part: Is Milton even going to be a part of the second unit? A lot has changed since the playoffs, when he averaged 13 minutes per game. Even more has changed since last October, when he started four of seven games in one early-season stretch. While P.J. Tucker has earned plenty of headlines, the Sixers’ acquisitions of De’Anthony Melton and Danuel House Jr. could have an even bigger impact on Doc Rivers’ rotation. This is particularly true for a group of incumbents who are used to hearing the head coach call their names.
“One thing coach identified that made things challenging in the playoffs especially was the lack of players who can play both sides of the ball,” team president Daryl Morey said on Monday, “which becomes more important during the playoffs. So that was a big [offseason] priority.”
The big question now is what happens to the players who tried and failed to fill that role last year. Milton, Matisse Thybulle, Georges Niang, Furkan Korkmaz — all of them are still on the roster. That wasn’t a given at the start of the offseason, even less so once the Sixers traded a first-round pick for Melton and signed House to a two-year, $8.5 million contract. As modest as those price tags may sound, they still represent a bigger investment than the Sixers have in Milton, Thybulle, or Niang, all three of whom are set to hit free agency after the season. Korkmaz is under contract for this year and next at a combined price tag of $10.37 million.
Along with Tucker, the additions of Melton and House give Rivers a variety of options for staggering his rotation. Whenever James Harden or Tyrese Maxey is on the bench, Melton will allow the Sixers to pair the other with a defensive upgrade who can catch and shoot. He’s clearly the sixth man. When Tobias Harris is off the court, House gives the Sixers a solid defensive wing to pair with Tucker at the four, where Paul Reed can work in to help limit the load on the 37-year-old Tucker, especially when the undersized Montrezl Harrell is spelling Joel Embiid. Those nine players represent a far more versatile rotation than Rivers could cobble together against the Heat.
They also represent a significant challenge for anybody else who wants minutes. Again, we’ve identified nine clear roles without mentioning any of Milton, Thybulle, Niang or Korkmaz. Of that group, Thybulle enters the camp with the most to gain. The prospect of teaming him with Melton on the defensive end is a tantalizing one: last year, they finished first and second in the NBA in steal percentage and first and third in deflections per minute. But how often will it make sense to have Thybulle out there instead of House, who can play solid defense and has hit 37% of his 4.5 3-point attempts per game over the last three seasons?
“At this point, I’ve done the work,” Thybulle said. “It’s just seeing how the cards fall. I’ve made the progress, I’ve put in the work, I’ve got up the reps and now it’s just seeing how it manifests throughout the season.”
And then we have a player like Niang. Shooting is the least of his problems. Last year, he connected on 40-plus% of his attempts for the fourth straight season. He also averaged a career high 22.8 minutes per game. The NBA is a place that tends to find opportunities for guys who can shoot at the rate Niang does. Right now, though, it’s anybody’s guess where those opportunities will come within the framework of this Sixers’ rotation.
The numbers game that will unfold over the next month is the big reason why the Sixers’ offseason interest in Rockets guard Eric Gordon made so much sense. Given the salaries and skill sets of the Thybulle-Milton-Niang-Korkmaz group, and Morey’s deal-making history, there’s no guarantee that the logjam will remain in place through the trade deadline, or even Christmas. It would make a lot of sense for the Sixers to try to roll that group into a single player who combines some or all of their skills.
For now, a lot depends on what happens over the next month. The Sixers had as good of an offseason as anybody could have expected given their needs and the resources at their disposal.
“I thought we had a targeted summer and we hit pretty much what we were looking for,” the head coach said.
It’s up to the rest of the roster to try to change their impression of what they have.
