Philadelphia 76ers: Point guard Furkan Korkmaz is a problem

The Philadelphia 76ers have a point guard problem.

Heading into the 2021-22 season, the team only really had one proven point guard on the roster in Ben Simmons and considering his eventual status with the team, that deficiency turned into an outright emergency once the preseason rolled around.

While the team was eventually able to overcome Simmons’ absence, as Tyrese Maxey’s emergence saved the season from being an absolute disaster (read about that here), the team has still been tasked with playing a less than conventional brand of basketball, with non-point guards like Seth Curry, Shake Milton, and most recently Furkan Korkmaz having to take up the role of primary ball-handler and primary passer to Joel Embiid.

The results? Well, they’ve been a problem, especially for the latter look, with the player Alaa Abdelnaby called the “Turkish Delight” running the point.

The Philadelphia 76ers have a unique problem with Furkan Korkmaz at the point.

Furkan Korkmaz is a shooter.

When he’s at his best, he’s draining shots from deep, secondary playmaking to his teammates and being a disruptor both on the boards and in the passing lane. In an association where 3-and-D players are incredibly valuable, Korkmaz’s game from 2019-21 was certainly worthy of the AAV of $5 million his contract will payout over the next two and a half seasons.

But in 2021-22, that hadn’t been all Korkmaz has brought to the table. No, in one of the weirdest developments of a very weird season, Korkmaz has brought his point guard pedigree from the Turkish National Team to the City of Brotherly Love, where he’s seen his touches per game grow expensively from 26.6 to 36.5 from Year 4 to 5 as a result.

While his shot went colder than cold from Thanksgiving through Christmas, the threat of his shot helped to open up the court for Joel Embiid in the paint and gave Doc Rivers the rare four shooter look folks have been banging on the table to see since Embiid initially took the court in 2016.

Therein lies the problem for opposing teams when Korkmaz is on the court: Floor spacing. When Kormkmaz is on the court, especially alongside Seth Curry, Georges Niang, and Embiid, the Sixers have a net rating of 41.8, with the third-best offensive rating of any four-man lineup on the team with 20 or more minutes played. The team has a true shooting percentage of 71.7 and a pace of 105.64, which is a notable improvement over their overall pace of 95.9.

Surely this look, especially with a fifth shooter like Danny Green on the court, can be successful, effective, and an offensive flame thrower, but one area where it or any lineup with Korkmaz running the point has struggled is assist percentage, mainly because there’s no true point guard on the court.

I know, crazy, right? But it’s true. That particular four-man lineup has an assist percentage of 60.8, which feels pretty good but actually ranks 45th among qualifying lineups. Pulling things out just a bit, in any lineups with Korkmaz and Embiid on the court together, the Sixers’ assist percentage is at 55.1, which ranks 17th… from last among qualifying two-man lineups (60th overall).

Therein lies the bad problem for the Philadelphia 76ers when Korkmaz is on the court: Embiid only has two two-man lineup pairings with an assist percentage of 60 or higher, with all three of his primary point guards, Shake Milton, Tyrese Maxey, and Korkmaz, each featured in lineups with assist percentages of under 58 in lineups when paired up with Embiid.

Just for clarification text, Karl-Anthony Towns has been featured in nine lineups with an assist percentage of 60 or greater, and Nikola Vucevic has eight.

Playing Embiid off of a shooting point guard is incredibly valuable and makes his life a good bit easier in terms of floor spacing, but not if he has a tough time getting the ball where he wants it. With only one two-man lineup featuring Embiid having a net rating of 20 or higher – playing alongside Niang – one has to wonder if securing a reserve point guard who can pass and shoot should be the Sixers’ top target on the trade market in a deal that doesn’t feature Ben Simmons.

Unfortunately, those players are a good bit harder to find than Daryl Morey might like.

When the Philadelphia 76ers traded about a dozen second-round picks – real number? Three – to the OKC Thunder for George Hill, it felt like a perfect addition. Now granted, it didn’t turn out that way, as Hill was objectively bad, and the team ate $1.2 million in dead money to get him off the books. While that decision was the correct one, the Sixers could really use a player like Hill coming off the bench, as Joel Embiid needs both passers and shooters around him to really shine. *sigh* I wonder what Tyrese Haliburton is up to?