Philadelphia 76ers: Has Furkan Korkmaz found a spot in Doc Rivers’ rotation?

Is there a player more polarizing on the Philadelphia 76ers‘ roster than Fukan Korkmaz?

Ben Simmons, maybe, especially for basketball fans who don’t actually keep up with the supremely talented guard/forward, but internally within the fanbase, Korkmaz remains an island onto himself; a player too good to move on from but too inconsistent to watch without bated breath.

When the Sixers opted against exercising Korkmaz’s option back in the fall of 2019, it felt logical. The 26th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, Korkmaz was largely kept out of Brett Brown’s regular rotation for his first two seasons as his team turned the corner from Processed lottery dwellers to a legit Eastern Conference playoff contender; a decision that led the 6-foot-7 winger to formally request a trade back in November of 2018.

Still, despite playing on a lame-duck contract, Korkmaz turned in some solid performances in his third professional season and parlayed that success into a new two-year, $3.38 million deal. The player affectionately known as Furky went on to become something of a sixth man for the Sixers in 2019-20, averaging a career-high 9.8 points in 21.7 minutes of action a night.

But after the season was indefinitely shelved, reignited in Orlando, and ultimately ended in a four-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Celtics, Brett Brown was out, Doc Rivers was in, and suddenly, Korkmaz found himself at a bit of a crossroads in his contract year with the Sixers. His minutes, points, and 3 point shooting have all been down, and any hopes of parlaying a successful playoff stint into a new, more lucrative contract became all the foggier by the addition of George Hill via a deadline-skirting trade.

With that being said, if Furkan Korkmaz continues performing like he’s been in the month of April, it’ll be hard as heck for the Philadelphia 76ers to keep him off the court.

Have the Philadelphia 76ers unlocked a new Furkan Korkmaz?

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2020-21 has been a tale of two seasons for Furkan Korkmaz.

Through its first 54 games, Korkmaz appeared in 43 with six starts. He’s scored in double-digits 18 times versus 25 games of nine or fewer – his average on the season is 9.2 – and despite having been active for every game since January 20th, his individual minutes has been staggeringly volatile, sometimes going from two minutes in one game to 28 in the next – literally, that actually happened in the Sixers’ two-game stint versus the

Tampa Bay

Toronto Raptors.

Sidebar: Despite having a “down” year from beyond the arc versus his 2019-20 high watermark, Korkmaz still ranks fifth on the team among qualifying players at 3 point shooting percentage, stuck behind Danny Green, Seth Curry, Tobias Harris, and Joel Embiid but above Mike Scott, Ben Simmons, Shake Milton, and Matisse Thybule.

But since earning a start versus the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second game of a road trip back-to-back, the Turkish sharpshooter has been lights out – averaging 20 points and 3.5 steals per game while draining 8-17 shots from the 3 point line.

Though the sample size is admittedly small, a little under 50 minutes of on-court time, Korkmaz looks comfortable, confident, and willing to play his role to the letter. Though he still gets a tad too dribbly at times for some people’s taste – mine, for example – if Korkmaz can continue to deliver double-digit points, a few steals, and 40-plus percent shooting from beyond the arc, it’ll go a long way to securing the 23-year-old a spot in Doc Rivers’ rotation come playoff time.

Which is good, because Korkmaz can actually be an intriguing weapon when he’s firing on all cylinders.

Measuring in at 6-foot-7, 202 pounds, Korkmaz is the Sixers’ tallest guard not named Ben Simmons, with a longer wingspan than all of the team’s wings save Matisse Thybulle. Though Korkmaz isn’t particularly known for his defensive acumen, and statistically speaking, that’s for a reason, he’s got the size needed to be an effective wing player in a switching system; the very system Rivers, Sam Cassell, and Dave Joerger like to run for large segments of any given game.

If Korkmaz can just settle into a catch-and-shoot role, something akin to the wing shooters Daryl Morey targeted during his tenure in Houston, there’s little reason to believe he couldn’t pad out his points per game average down the stretch and serve as the Sixers’ premier sharpshooting specialist coming off the bench in reserve of either Seth Curry or Danny Green.

If that can happen, maybe there is a spot for Korkmaz in the playoff rotation after all.

Now granted, is that a bit of a presumptive statement? Sure, but it’s not an unfounded one. While it’d be a tad unusual to run a bench rotation with four guards and one big man – George Hill, Shake Milton, Matisse Thubulle, Furkan Korkmaz, and either Mike Scott or Dwight Howard, depending on the matchup – staggering Simmons and Harris would allow the Sixers to give more minutes to ball-dominant guards like Hill and Milton at the one, and allow Korkmaz to stay engaged as a wing shooter a la the same role Mike Scott plays now; albeit without the responsibility to guard bigs in the paint.

Korkmaz has already moonlighted as a small-ball power forward from time to time during the first half of the 2020-21 NBA season, so such a concept isn’t too outlandish.

But right now, that doesn’t particularly matter. With roughly a month left to play before the regular season gives way to the playoffs, Furkan Korkmaz needs to remain focused on his game, all the while putting his team in the best position to succeed. If that can happen, maybe his “newfound role” in Doc Rivers’ rotation will be the rule, not a fleeting exception.