Getty Paul Reed and Shake Milton were the stars of the Sixers' regular-season finale vs. Detroit on April 10, 2022 in Philadelphia.
While the Philadelphia 76ers lost in the second round of the NBA playoffs, the team has to feel good about the roster going forward.
James Harden and Joel Embiid will play a full season together next year, and there will be another year of Tyrese Maxey ahead. What’s not guaranteed is what the bench will look like, but according to Spotrac’s Keith Smith, picking up Shake Milton option is the easiest decision for the team to make.
“The easiest decision he has is to pick up the very team-friendly $1.9 million team option for Shake Milton,” he wrote. Milton is a good player and well-worth that minimal investment.”
Throughout his Sixers career, Milton has been a streaky shooter, but when his shot is falling, it’s really falling.
Milton Has Been Solid
Tim Nwachukwu/Getty ImagesShake Milton
Finding a backup combo guard is harder than it sounds, so it’s a good thing the Sixers already have one on the roster.
At 25 years old, Milton’s best days are likely still ahead of him, and while it’s nice having him for so cheap now there’s not a guarantee things will stay that way. The guard can play both positions, and that’s something that is highly valued in the NBA today. He can fill in as a starter when necessary and he averages over 20 minutes per game, so it’s clear he’s an essential piece of the Sixers.
Part of the problem with him, and perhaps the biggest reason he comes off the bench, is the fact that he’s been very streaky with his scoring. Despite that, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Milton will be back with the team next year.
A big question mark that’s left is what will the rest of the team look like?
Could Be Some Roster Overhaul
GettyDeAndre Jordan has been struggling as the backup center for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Sixers general manager Daryl Morey has talked about the importance of filling out the rest of the bench for a championship run.
“We’re excited to do that,” said Morey. “I think we’ve had very good success about finding guys. We’ll have the max resources under the CBA available to us, but a lot of it’s gonna be finding the right minimum guys, which I think we’ve had good success and I find that to be one of the best parts of the job is how do you, once you’ve got your main guys in place, which we do, finding the guys who can fit in and we need to do a better job, but that is the job. That’s part of why I love being in basketball.”
Something that fans were unhappy with Doc Rivers about was the playing of veterans like DeAndre Jordan. It seemed clear Jordan didn’t have anything left in the tank, but he still found himself getting heavy minutes.
Smith wrote that filling out the roster with more productive players could prevent that from happening.
“Rivers loves his vets, and if they were simply deep bench depth, it would be fine,” he wrote. “The issue comes in if Rivers puts either on the floor, especially for big minutes or key moments. In order to keep that from happening, Morey could upgrade the rotation enough that Rivers won’t be tempted to play the veterans.”
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