The Philadelphia 76ers may have gone 1-3 on their four-game California road swing, but Shake Milton turned some heads on the trip. He became a bit of a household name, in Philadelphia at least, and he earned himself an appearance on ESPN’s The Jump.
He made NBA history in the opener against the Los Angeles Clippers on his way to scoring a career-high 39 points and he averaged 21.3 points while shooting 56.5% from deep on the trip. He did all of that while filling in for the injured Ben Simmons, not exactly the easiest thing to do considering the shoes he had to fill.
It wasn’t too long ago when Milton was toiling in the G League as a rookie with the Delaware Blue Coats. He was on a two-way deal with the Sixers and he averaged 24.9 points as he did enough to warrant a guaranteed deal with Philadelphia.
Blue Coats coach Connor Johnson has a lot of experience with Milton, both as his coach in the G League and in the Summer League, and he is proud of what Milton has accomplished in such a short time.
“It seems like there’s a lot of people who want to take credit for Shake,” laughed Johnson. “But we’re proud of him for sure. We’re happy to be a part of his journey from where he was. Getting hurt in the draft process to where he is now, I think it’s a good illustration of what you need to do and how you can use this two-way to move on to something better.”
Milton and the Sixers will return home on Wednesday to host the Detroit Pistons. They have the best home record in the NBA at 28-2 compared to their 10-24 road record. [lawrence-related id=27354,27348,27339]