The Philadelphia 76ers needed a shooter. They needed somebody who could come in and give the team a spark when it’s needed and somebody who can spread the floor. They lost that over the summer when JJ Redick signed with the New Orleans Pelicans, but they may have found it again in Furkan Korkmaz.
In Friday’s 100-89 win over the Chicago Bulls, Korkmaz scored a career-high 24 points while knocking down six shots from deep and the Sixers played through him in the second half where he scored 18 of his points. Coach Brett Brown dusted off the old Redick playbook and used Korkmaz in his place.
“For us to see him come in and do JJ like stuff and have that type of a bomber, that was different,” said Brown. “We put him in a bunch of stuff. We ran five plays in a row going to him like I had flashbacks of JJ. Like we jumped into JJ’s package.”
A lot of the old Redick packages involve a lot of dribble handoffs and allowing him to just fire it up from deep. On Friday, the Sixers ran a few plays like that to allow Korkmaz the space needed to get up the shots needed for his offense.
“He changed the game,” Brown added. “He gave us a spark and whether it was the 3-ball, I don’t remember JJ dunking like that. I forgot that one, but the long shot and just bam, bam, bam quick points fueled our defense.”
Philadelphia has not been able to run that type of offense with this group due to the lack of a sharpshooter like Redick, but it helps when Korkmaz can have that type of game. Brown admitted the playbook was so old it had mothballs on it.
“When you choose who’s got the capability to either set screens or slip screens, then you’re running backwards and you’ve got to turn your shoulders and get squared and balanced and have the ability to shoot that shot. That’s a hard shot to shoot,” the coach explained on Korkmaz. “We have put him into that action that used to be sort of anointed for JJ. It has like dust on it, mothballs, but we drug it out of the closet and he’s been very successful with it.”
This comes after Korkmaz made some big shots from deep in Wednesday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets so it gives him a lot of confidence moving forward. They will start a road trip on Saturday against the New York Knicks where they will look to turn it around on the road where they have had their struggles.