Philadelphia 76ers: George Hill will do wonders for Shake Milton

The 2020-21 NBA season has been a weird one for Philadelphia 76ers guard Shake Milton.

On one hand, Milton is averaging the most points of his career and has been a fixture of the Sixth Man of the Year race all season long, but he’s doing so while draining 32.8 percent of his shots from beyond the arc and an effective field goal percentage of 50.4, both of which are notable downgrades from the season before.

So what gives? How has Milton somehow improved as a scorer, all the while becoming less effective at it? Could it be a lack of an elite pick and pop partner, as Milton went from playing big minutes with Al Horford and Joel Emiid to serving mostly as a second-unit leader paired up with Matisse Thybulle, Dwight Howard, and Furkan Korkmaz? Then again, Milton has played over 400 minutes with both Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris, so it’s not like Milton hasn’t been completely devoid of talent to run with.

Hm… *lightbulb goes off* whoa. Maybe it isn’t Milton’s lack of a supporting cast that has affected his efficiency but a general lack of playmaking on the Sixers’ roster that has forced the 24-year-old to hunt for his own shot far too often, especially when you consider the Milkman’s son is far more of a two-guard than a traditional floor general.

If that is in fact the case, Milton might just be in luck, as the Philadelphia 76ers just so happen to have traded for a point guard who may make his life a whole lot easier in the not too distant future in one-time Spur/Pacer/Kings/Cavalier/Thunder/Jazzman(?) George Hill.

George Hill and Shake Milton should form a great 1-2 Philadelphia 76ers punch.

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The Philadelphia 76ers’ 114-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers was one of those classic games where the hoop looked like an above-ground pool for Shake Milton.

Leading all Sixers in playing time – the first time he’s accomplished that feat since logging 36 minutes versus the Sacramento Kings – Milton scored 27 points in 27 minutes, all the while hitting 10-14 from the field and 5-7 from beyond the arc. His four assists ranked second on the team behind Ben Simmons, and his five rebounds slotted in only behind Simmons, Dwight Howard, and, oddly enough, Danny Green.

So what changed? How did Milton build off of a quiet road trip to recording one of the best games of the season?

Well, seven of Milton’s 14 shots were assisted, including three from his backcourt partner Tyrese Maxey.

Now granted, Maxey and Milton didn’t play a particularly complementary game, as the latter was largely tasked with running the offense while the former had to wait on the wings despite being a fairly below average spot-up shooter, but in this particular game, that didn’t stagnate the offense too much, as the Sixers’ bench was able to outscore their Cavs counterparts 65-26 – which, if you’ve been watching the Sixers regularly this season, is a pretty incredible feat.

If Milton can perform like that against a solid enough collection of Cavs guards playing alongside a largely out-of-place Maxey, imagine just how much his game will blossom when paired up with a perfect foil at both ends of the court like George Hill.

Assuming the Sixers have been relying on Maxey more heavily as they have the post-trade deadline to dry run potential looks with Milton paired up with another point, one can pretty easily envision how the offense would run with Hill perched on the wings waiting for an open 3 point shot – a shot I imagine he’d take, considering he’s hit 44.2 percent of his shots from beyond the arc over the last two seasons – but what we won’t know until we actually see it for ourselves sooner rather than later is how Milton will look in an off-ball look paired up with another, smaller guard.

Why? Because we just haven’t seen it all too often in 2021.

Through the first 33 games of the regular season, Milton and Maxey have only shared the court for 275 minutes or roughly 8.3 minutes of action per game. While those minutes aren’t particularly evenly dispersed, as Maxey will play 20-plus minutes in one game and then not play for a week, there are only two other players, Dwight Howard and Matisse Thybulle, who have played more minutes with the Sixers’ rookie point than Mr. Milton, thus making any comparisons just.

Up until recently, when Maxey is on the court with Milton, or Simmons, or really any other combination of players, the 20-year-old isn’t looking to slow things down, get his compatriots into a play, and execute to Doc Rivers’ speculations. No, Maxey’s game is largely predicated on taking the ball full-court and weaving his way through traffic before ultimately settling for his signature shot, the mid-range floater. Maxey takes 3.4 shots per game between the non-restricted area and mid-range, which is roughly twice the number of assists he records on average (1.6).

Hill isn’t that player.

No, even in his prime, Hill was never a DeAaron Fox-style speed slasher, instead earning his points through a combination of outside shooting and crafty ball handling. Sure, Hill can still dunk with the best of them, well maybe not the best best of them, but certainly the best 34-year-olds who have been in the NBA for closing in on a decade, but Hill is far more likely to take a shot off of one or fewer bounces than he is on two-six.

Fortunately, the Sixers didn’t trade for Hill to be a throwback floor general a la Jason Kidd or John Stockton; no, they acquired the IUPUI product because of his ability to play alongside other guards and serve as a willing ball mover, which could surely help to unlock some of Simmons’ off-ball gifts but could be just as useful for a guard like Milton who could desperately use a few more perfectly placed passes thrown his way.

In Hill, the Sixers have landed a guard who doesn’t like to keep the ball in his hands for too long. During his abbreviated stint in OKC this season, paired up with another Milton-sized combo guard on franchise player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Hill was equally utilized both on and off the ball and could frequently be seen either taking an open-ish shot or passing the ball to a more open teammate in the hopes of manufacturing an open look for Mark Daigneault’s offense.

If that’s all the Sixers get out of Hill, a willing passer and very good shooter, it’ll certainly make the picks and players they surrendered worth it – we’ll miss you forever, Tony Bradley – but if he can show a few more flashes of his time in Indiana where he ran the show like a grizzled Gregg Popovich-trained point, well that’ll just put Milton in more positions to succeed and thus improve his offensive efficiency.

Next. T.J. McConnell is playing out of his mind. dark

On a team with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris, Shake Milton might just be the most crucial to the Philadelphia 76ers’ playoff chances not because he’s necessarily a better player – he isn’t – but because the range between his floor and ceiling in any given game could very well be the difference between a win and a loss. Though the addition of George Hill won’t necessarily serve as a magic pill to transform Milton’s on-court mastery versus the Cavs into an every night occasion, bringing in a veteran point guard to help take some of the weight of leading the second unit off of Milton’s shoulders will allow the 24-year-old to take fewer bad shots and focus-up on regaining his 2019-20 form from beyond the arc and the field in general.