PHILADELPHIA–Second-year Philadelphia 76ers guard Jaden Springer is a player who’s shrouded in mystery. The Sixers selected Springer with the 28th pick in the 2021 NBA draft and he hasn’t received many opportunities as the Sixers do not have many available minutes for him.
Therefore, Springer has been toiling in the G League with the team’s affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats. He had played 14 games for the Sixers in the 2022-23 season, mostly in garbage time with the game already in hand, but those are NBA minutes and Springer isn’t going to let a rare opportunity slip away from him.
“It’s big for me,” said Springer. “I don’t get too many opportunities so I just try and make the best of every chance I’m given. Whether it’s three minutes, one minute, whatever it is, go out there and have fun and just go hard.”
Whenever he does get those opportunities, he certainly takes advantage of them as he has caught the eye of his teammates with his defensive play. Coach Doc Rivers has even said that he believes Springer will be an elite defensive player in the NBA.
The 20-year-old believes that he is an NBA-ready defender right now.
“Yeah, for sure,” he beamed. “I can definitely say that. I feel like I can go out there and compete with anybody. So that’s just my mindset going into it. It’s good that Doc believes that also so like I said, I feel good. I’m confident.”
As far as his offense is concerned, he averaged 19.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in 24 regular season games for the Blue Coats. He shot only 31.9% from deep, but that’s up from the 24.1% he shot as a rookie and he has shown much more comfortability on the offensive end of the floor using his size and physicality to get easy buckets.
“Just the work I’ve been putting in,” he explained. “The staff here, the Sixers, everybody has been in the lab with me every day. So just being able to get comfortable and just be able to learn, make mistakes, and just learn from my mistakes that I’ve been making. I feel like that’s been pretty big.”
Young Jaden Springer working on corner triples pregame work #Sixers pic.twitter.com/fGYiFoB38x
— Ky Carlin (@Ky_Carlin) March 31, 2023
Springer and the Blue Coats have a big playoff game on Sunday when they take on the Long Island Nets on the road. The winner of that one will head to the G League finals and Springer sees it as another opportunity to move forward.
“I feel like this has been a great season,” he finished. “A winning season. We all playing hard and I feel like after that first game in the playoffs, I feel like we’re ready so I feel like we just I feel like we should make it all the way to the finals and win it with the team we got. I feel like, if we don’t, I feel like it’s just a letdown for all the work we put in throughout the season.”
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