Philadelphia 76ers: It’s now or never for Shake Milton

Help us Shake Milton, you are the Philadelphia 76ers’ only hope.

In the eyes of many Philadelphia 76ers fans, this season is championship or bust.

Now sure, is that an overly simplified, Ricky Bobby’s daddy Reese sort of world view? Could the team come in second, even third? Yes, technically that is correct but after four months away from the greatest game played in combination hockey-basketball arenas the country over, fans in the 215 are freakin’ hungry for some winning and winning now.

And for good reason.

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As hard as it may be to remember now, as everything pre-COVID has gradually dissipated into a vague, gray mess of missed plans and broken dreams, the Sixers were kinda bad before the season went on indefinite suspension. Ben Simmons was out indefinitely with a back injury, the team dropped an absolute stunner to the rebuilding Cleveland Cavaliers that may go down as the single lowest point of ‘The Process-Era’ and the Al Horford-Joel Embiid experiment was all but a certified failure. Barring some miracle, the season would all but certainly end in disappointment, Brett Brown – and maybe Elton Brand – would receive their walking papers, and the franchise’s very future would be up in the air; entirely dependent on the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment finding the right man to helm the franchise to the promised land.

Take from that what you will.

However, over the last dozen or so games before basketball went away, Philly fans were finally handed a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe their team had a secret weapon erroneously wasted on the bench for the previous 50-plus games.

Get out your personalized Bodega prayer candles people because Malik ‘Shake’ Milton has been anointed the Sixers’ Savior, whether warranted or not.

Alright, is that a tad sacrilegious? Are fans really expecting the 54th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to actually come in and transform a team with four starts on deals worth over $100 million? Honestly, yes, and I’m not even joking.

To my knowledge, I can’t think of another Philly athlete who has been thrust into the same position as Milton over such a small sample size. Dom Brown maybe? Josh Adams? Michael Carter-Williams sure got Sam Hinkie a very good pick from the Milwaukee Bucks despite ultimately capping out as a third-string point guard on an Orlando Magic squad featuring Markelle Fultz in a starting role.

Wait, hold up the second, all those players ended up being bad. Is Milton bad too?

For all of our sake, let’s hope the answer is no.

As crazy as it is to say, Milton got hot at the worst possible time earlier this year. The Sixers were in a free fall, chants to fire Brett Brown grew louder than at any point during the season, and fans were looking for anyone, literally anyone, to give the team a shot. By putting up an absolutely unreal game against the Los Angeles Clippers, the kind of game may only happen once a year if that, Milton immediately became that guy. Granted, it doesn’t hurt he did so against the Clippers, as he was then booked to guess on ESPN’s Los Angeles-based show ‘The Jump’ the very next day to talk about it, but when Milton was able to back up that solitary performance with a series of impressive outings in the four penultimate games that followed, it shored up the idea that maybe he did deserve a spot in the Sixers’ rotation; maybe even in the starting lineup over the presumed fifth starter.

Heck, Brett Brown even used his three-plus months away from organized team activities to craft a new-look offense featuring Milton at the one and Simmons kicked over to his natural position, power forward. If even the Coach is shotgunning the Milton kool-ai… shake it has to say… something.

What exactly? Well, fortunately, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

Next. Why on earth did the Philadelphia 76ers not draft Bol Bol?. dark

Is Shake Milton the next Patrick Beverley, an underappreciated point guard slept on in the NBA Draft who develops into a legit starter on a championship-caliber team, or the 2020 version of Jeremy ‘Linsanity’ Lin, another underappreciated point guard slept on in the draft who put up an amazing set of games but ultimately faded into a footnote in NBA history? For the sake of the Philidelphia 76ers’ championship hopes – and the very future of the franchise – let’s hope it’s the former.