The Philadelphia 76ers are currently in a familiar situation as they had to stay an extra night in Oklahoma City after their game with the Thunder was postponed Sunday due to contact tracing. The road trip overall was not kind to the Sixers as they fell to the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday as well.
There was one bright spot on the trip, however, and that was the continued strong play of third-year guard Shake Milton and rookie Tyrese Maxey against Memphis. Milton had 28 points off the bench including scoring 15 in the fourth quarter as he tried to lead a late comeback and Maxey had 12 points as he showed a continued aggressiveness.
When the Sixers do get their full complement of players back, they will feature some serious depth. With Ben Simmons and Seth Curry in the starting lineup setting the tone and then Milton and Maxey coming in off the bench to keep it going, there is a lot to like about that tandem.
“It’s nice,” said coach Doc Rivers. “You got a lot of offensive firepower and what I like about both is, it’s off the dribble. They can get into the paint and create action. It’ll be nice to have once everybody gets back.”
Rivers is right about their ability to put the ball on the floor. The amount of ball-handlers the Sixers currently possess has been one of their strengths to begin the season. It allows Simmons to play more off the ball and it also opens up a lot of their offense for Milton to go to work as well as Maxey being able to run pick-and-rolls.
When both of the young players are on the floor, the two of them are able to use their speed and athleticism to just turn and run. Both of them are so adept at finishing in traffic and being able to use their ability to knock down pull-up jumpers to get easy points.
“Most definitely,” said Milton of Maxey. “Young kid can go, Reese go. It’s definitely fun to have somebody like that in the backcourt with you. He can dribble, shoot, pass he’s just a playmaker, and so anytime you have an extra playmaker on the court, it makes it fun to play with.”
Once the Sixers do get their full roster back, they should be able to resemble the team that began the season 7-1. They have the right shooters around the stars and they now have proven ball-handlers and guys who can score off the bench. At this point, it’s just all about getting healthy and working out the kinks.
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