Philadelphia 76ers: Has Doc Rivers finally soured on Shake Milton?

One time is a fluke, two times is a coincidence, three times is a trend.

After turning in a hot-and-cold season highlighted by early-season Sixth Man of the Year hype that tailed off into a series of streaks, Shake Milton entered the Philadelphia 76ers‘ initial playoff series against the Washington Wizards with a lot to prove. If he got things back on track, capitalizing on the Wizards’ lack of backcourt depth, maybe it could be enough to get the wind behind his sails and propel the 24-year-old towards a massive role as the team’s top bench scorer.

And if not? Well, Milton would likely see his minutes begin to wane in favor of George Hill, Matisse Thybulle, and even the 20-year-old Tasmanian devil known professionally and not as Tyrese Maxey.

Fast forward three games into the future, and fans have unfortunately been treated to a whole lot more of the latter than the former.

So what gives? How has the Shakester gone from a sparkplug who averaged 13 points in the regular season to three under the bright lights of the playoffs? And is there anything Milton can do to right this ship before he completely falls out of the regular rotation heading into Round 2?

Shake Milton is trying too hard to help the Philadelphia 76ers.

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Shake Milton has played 34 minutes so far this postseason for the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s taken 12 shots, including four from beyond the arc, and has only accounted for four assists and two steals versus seven turnovers and four personal fouls.

Those numbers, no matter how you quantify them, aren’t good.

Milton has the worst win share of any regular rotation player on the team. He also has the worst box plus/minus and leads the team in turnover percentage, which is one category you don’t want to lead the team in.

And worst of all, Milton just hasn’t looked like the player who dropped 39 on Doc Rivers‘ former LA Clippers squad last spring.

Through the first three games versus Washington, Milton has earned eight separate shifts of one minute or more, two in Game 1, three in Game 2, and three in Game 3. Of those eight individual deployments, the Sixers only outscored Washington in three of them and recorded a -16 point differential over those 34 combined minutes.

Is that all on Milton? Goodness no. He almost exclusively spent his time on the court with the reserves and only logged six minutes with either Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons, but when you’re tasked with running the point on a reserve unit that continually gets outgunned while simultaneously leading the team in turnovers, the leash is eventually going to tighten up like a darn The Black Keys song.

That appeared to happen in Game 3, as Rivers opted to go with Tyrese Maxey as his first guard coming off the bench and use Milton in more of a Furkan Korkmaz-esque role as an off-ball shooter.

The results were mixed.

While Milton did handle the ball a bit less frequently than in games passed, his shots continued to fall at a less than ideal clip, going 1-3 from the field and 0-1 from beyond the arc for four points in 11 minutes. Had the game not gone completely off the rails by the third quarter, it’s entirely possible Milton would have been held to single-digit minutes for the first time in his playoff career, not that he really did much in those final five minutes, as he only made one shot from the field, two from the charity stripe, and logged a pair of turnovers in addition to an offensive foul.

If Milton can take on more of a traditional off-ball shooting guard role coming off the bench, think a 6-foot-5 Seth Curry, there’s still a place for him in Rivers’ rotation, as the Sixers haven’t had a single bench player go for double-digits in more than one game and could use a bit more offensive consistency from their reserve unit, but if fans can continue to count the number of points Milton contributes on one hand, it’s clear he isn’t the man for the job.

Needless to say, Game 4 means a little bit more to Milton than most, as it could define his role come Round 2.

Assuming Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal don’t go full “300” in what could be their final playoff game of the season and take a Sixers squad with eyes for a forthcoming matchup against either the Atlanta Hawks for the New York Knicks – but real talk, probably the Atlanta Hawks – to the mat in a knockdown, drag-out war to the buzzer, Milton should play a role against Washington. If he can make better decisions as a ball-handler, hit open looks without taking shots on the wings, and not fall victim to momentum crushing turnovers, maybe he’ll remain in play for a role when the Sixers return to the Wells Fargo Center in the month of June – either against Washington or Atlanta/New York.

Mr. Milton, the ball is in your court.

Next. Joel Embiid is the best heel in the NBA. dark

Is one game enough to get Shake Milton back on track? Probably not… but then again, two games were enough to transform Tyrese Maxey from a change of pace energy guy into a legitimate role player capable of changing the game in a positive way whenever he takes the court for the Philadelphia 76ers, so who really knows. Either way, if Milton wants to remain a part of Doc Rivers’ rotation heading into the second round and beyond, when the bench will inevitably shrink, putting in a return-to-form performance against Washington in Game 4 would be a good way to shift momentum in his favor.