PHILADELPHIA–The Philadelphia 76ers have one of the stronger starting lineups in the game led by Joel Embiid and James Harden as well as a rising star in Tyrese Maxey. Then there is Tobias Harris who is still capable of putting up 18 points a night.
However, the bench is a different story as they have had a tough time finding any consistency.
Furkan Korkmaz is the biggest example of that as he has had a very tough season shooting the ball. He is shooting only 29.6% from deep after shooting 37.5% in the 2020-21 season and 40.2% in the 2019-20 season.
In Wednesday’s win over the New York Knicks, Korkmaz only played four minutes as he could not knock down any open looks. This has been an issue all season and when compounded by his poor defense, it is tough to justify playing him.
“He’s just gotta play himself out of it,” said coach Doc Rivers. “There’s no secret to it. It goes in and out, right? I talked to him today about being a confident shooter. You have to be. You have to be willing to miss four or five in a row and believe the next one’s going in because I’ve put enough time and practice in to know that it’s gonna win. That’s what shooters do.”
In the second half, Rivers turned to Shake Milton to play more over Korkmaz and it’s due to Milton being able to do other things when his shot isn’t falling. As they move forward, the rotation will have to continue to play out and the players will have to earn their spots on the floor.
“It’s gonna play out,” Rivers added. “We still have Isaiah Joe we can throw in as well so it’ll play out. We have time.”
One thing is for sure, outside of the starting unit, the Sixers will continue to play with the rotation and figure out how they are going to work everything out going forward. A guy like Korkmaz is going to have to get his shot back to really earn more playing time.
“It’ll evolve,” Rivers added. “We pretty much know the two groups that we want on the floor. At least far as Joel and Tyrese and James and Tobias, but we may even change that. We’re gonna try different things.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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