With the NBA season officially on hiatus, it’s a shame fans of the Philadelphia 76ers don’t get to see Shake Milton build on his early-March hot streak.
If the 2019-20 NBA season is really, truly over – and at this point, the season’s future is anyone’s guess – at least Shake Milton gave fans of the Philadelphia 76ers one heck of a parting gift.
Over the month of March, Milton averaged 19.4 points on 56.3 percent shooting on the field in 30.4 minutes of action a night. Was the sample size relatively small? Totally, the Sixers only played five games over that time frame, but that shouldn’t devalue Milton’s accomplishments. We’re talking five straight games with at least 12 points, three assists, a steal, and a made 3 pointer.
Just for context, had Milton been able to sustain those numbers out over a full season, he would have ranked 34th overall in scoring – tied ironically with his teammate Tobias Harris – 12th in steals, and first overall in 3 point shooting percentage at a totally unsustainable 51.9 percent.
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And most impressively of all, Milton’s emergence came without Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid on the court for all but one game.
After being sidelined by an early-season knee sprain and the subsequent emergence of Furkan Korkmaz as a legitimate volume-scoring sixth man, Milton’s prospects of joining Brett Brown‘s late-season rotation, let alone playoff rotation, felt all but impossible – so much so that Brown literally told him as much in the duo’s post-All-Star break meeting.
And yet, a late-February back injury to Simmons gave Milton a surprise opportunity to re-join the rotation and run with it.
From his star-making 39 point performance against the Los Angeles Clippers that earned the 23-year-old a guest spot on The Jump, to a near-perfect outing against the New York Knicks the game prior, Milton has entered his name into the conversation to become the 76ers’ long-term starting two guard next to Simmons moving forward.
It’s just a shame we won’t see that pairing anytime soon.
Now to be fair, it’s anyone guess when Simmons would have returned from his back injury had the season gone on as initially intended, as it’s entirely possible he’d still be out some six weeks later, but that’s neither here nor there. Simmons or no Simmons, it would have been great to see Milton run the pick-and-roll with Embiid, creating a two-shooter look the Sixers simply can’t run when their 6-foot-10 point guard is running the show.
Over a five-game stretch – nine really if you take it back to the game against the Milwaukee Bucks where Simmons exited after five minutes – Milton somehow established himself as the Sixers’ best backup point guard, best outside shooter, and potentially the team’s most complete offensive guard. Who knows what could have happened had the team been able to play out the final 17 games of the regular season. Maybe Milton could have sustained his success and helped the 76ers forge an offensive identity for seemingly the first time all season.
Granted, Milton could have just as easily fallen back to earth as a featured player in opposing teams’ game plans, but hey, why be pessimistic in times like these?
When the Philadelphia 76ers signed Shake Milton to a four-year, $7 million contract during the offseason, it was small potatoes compared to the big-money deals handed out to Tobias Harris and Al Horford. And yet, when the team’s top-two stars were down and out and the Sixers needed someone to step up and save the season, it was the Shakester who rallied the troops and stepped up his game. It’s just a shame we didn’t get to see him finish the job.