Friday’s scrimmage game may not have counted against their record, but the Philadelphia 76ers debuted a new starting lineup and that is huge for them as a franchise moving forward.
The move is that young Shake Milton has come into the starting point guard role with veteran Al Horford moving to the bench. Another corresponding move is Ben Simmons moving over to the power forward spot. The idea is to help the Sixers move into the current pace and space era in the league with Milton providing some shooting and Simmons being able to use his speed more.
In Friday’s 90-83 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, Milton had six points and three assists. He shot 2-for-4 from the floor and 1-for-2 from deep in 17:30 of playing time. Coach Brett Brown was happy with what he saw out of his second-year point guard.
“I thought that he did quite well. I look forward to going back and seeing some things defensively. I give (Kyle) Anderson credit for making some shots that we probably favored other people and showing some significant crowds on Ja (Morant) especially.”
The thing on Brown’s mind the most is his defense. Milton is entering a starting lineup anchored by its defense. They have elite defenders like Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Josh Richardson while Tobias Harris is a solid defender as well.
“I think Shake when I go back and study like ‘How did you do?’ some of it was the defensive scheme, some of it is he needs to get better, but I thought, for the most part, he was good on both sides of the ball,” Brown explained. “I look forward to studying defense on Shake during this time frame that we’ve given help and responsibility as being a pretty good team’s starting point guards.”
Philadelphia will get another look at Milton’s new role on Sunday in their next scrimmage game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. [lawrence-related id=35427,35420,35413]