Philadelphia 76ers: Georges Niang returns to Utah a different, better player

Four months ago, most fans of the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t know the name Georges Niang.

A former second-round pick out of Iowa State by the Indiana Pacers, Niang played 206 of his first 229 NBA games as a member of the Utah Jazz, first on a two-way contract and then on a standard three-year, $4.9 million deal that ran through the 2020-21 NBA season.

Over his tenure in Utah, Niang played 20 or more minutes in a game 28 times, over 30 twice, and finished out his run with an average stat line of 5.5 points, 0.7 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 12.7 minutes of action a night, while hitting 44.4 percent of his shots from the field and 41.1 percent from beyond the arc.

While Niang wasn’t a superstar for the Jazz by any means, he served as a viable, efficient cog in Quinn Snyder’s well-oiled machine and even garnered a pair of nicknames for his efforts, the self-proclaimed “Minivan” and “Fat Curry,” which thankfully hasn’t stuck.

As a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, however, Georges Niang has been far more than your run-of-the-mill dude. So on this, his first game back in Utah since being allowed to walk on a two-year, $6.7 million contract, let’s evaluate how the “Minivan” has acclimated to South Philly, where minibikes typically own the streets.

*Spoiler alert* He’s been pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Niang is the unsung hero of the Philadelphia 76ers’ first month of the season.

Doc Rivers loves Georges Niang.

He reportedly wanted to trade for him back in February, personally reached out about a spot on the team when free agency opened up, and has thus far put him on the court for roughly half of the minutes in any given Philadelphia 76ers game this season.

Niang has logged at least 13 minutes in all 14 of the games he’s appeared in so far this season, and he recorded three straight games at the beginning of November with 31 or more minutes of on-court action thanks to the absence of Tobias Harris. In those games, Niang has scored an average of 12 points – including a season-high 21 points against the Bucks and Blazers – and has drained 32 of his 82 3 pointers, good for a completion percentage of 39.

Granted, Niang is still more or less a non-factor both as a passer and as a rebounder. While his assists are more than doubled from the season prior, going from .3 to .8 per game, for the most part, Niang’s shooting has largely held up on double the output from one session prior, as his shooting percentages show.

But wait, it gets better. Besides being an upgrade over Mike Scott in every conceivable metric on the court, Niang has embraced the city much like his predecessor, all but disregarding his Boston roots to go all-in on the City of Brotherly Love.

Yes, Niang is a below-average defender, as he currently ranks 203rd out of a possible 251 players according to FiveThirtyEight, but his overall Total Raptor is tied with Bam Adebayo for 53rd league-wide at a very healthy +2.9, with a WAR rating of. 9 that ranks third on the team behind Andre Drummond and Joel Embiid.

I know some people like to view FiveThirtyEight stats with a grain of salt, but Daryl Morey is a firm believer in their analysis, so that’s good enough for me.

Is Georges Niang a perfect player? No. He’s a certified role player who only has a few tools in his bag of tricks, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a particularly effective role player. If anything, Niang may just be the best value player on the Philadelphia 76ers’ roster, as he’s giving the team top-end bench production at an average annual value of $3.35 million. Not too shabby for “Fat Curry,” the 6-foot-7 combo forward who apparently wasn’t worth an extension by the team currently ranked 26th in 3 point shooting percentage despite attempting the third-most shots in the NBA from beyond the arc.