The Philadelphia 76ers are officially in Orlando as they get set to resume the 2019-20 NBA season which has been suspended since March 11 due to the global coronavirus pandemic. With that in mind, we are handing out three goals for the main parts of the Sixers rotation for them to focus on come playoff time.
Up second in this series is backup guard Alec Burks who the Sixers acquired from the Golden State Warriors in an attempt to find bench offense and find a guy who can create his own shot. Burks only played in 11 games for Philadelphia before the league suspension, but he now gets his chance to produce down in Orlando.
For Burks, he has three goals to focus on in the restart and those are:
Provide shot creation
Burks’ main goal for Philadelphia has to be to come in and add shot creation off their bench. He is a guy who can get to the basket at will and he draws a lot of fouls as shown by his 4.3 foul shot attempts so far this season. He was averaging 10.7 points for the Sixers before the league went into suspension and he flashed some of the shot creation ability in a post All-Star break win over the Brooklyn Nets. That skill set will come in handy in the playoffs.
Provide playmaking
Sensing a theme here? You should. The Sixers need a jolt of offense off their bench and that is the plan for Burks. He will most likely have the ball in his hands a lot off the bench behind Ben Simmons and Josh Richardson and he will be expected to do a lot of things for them on offense between shot creation as well as playmaking. This will be where he will earn his next spot in the NBA whether in Philadelphia or elsewhere.
Free agency in mind
Just to build off that last part, Burks is a free agent this summer–or fall at this point–so the playoffs will be his opportunity to prove himself for his next paycheck in the league. The Sixers put him in a unique position where he can be a regular rotation piece for a team that’s chasing a championship so, at this point, he should be working as hard as he can to be sure that he is ready to thrive in this role for the Sixers and show what he can do for the upcoming free agency period. He has been a journeyman so far in his career, so he is most likely looking for a permanent home in the league.