The Philadelphia 76ers are close to getting a little healthier as Joel Embiid and Josh Richardson returned to practice on Tuesday and there will be an update on Ben Simmons within the coming days and when they do return to the floor, the team will have a bit of normalcy.
However, there is one player who made a big statement that he should be playing regardless and that is Shake Milton.
Milton has stepped in for Simmons and he has done a brilliant job. He is averaging 18.7 points and 4.4 assists while shooting 59.3% from the floor and 62.2% from deep in the past seven games and coach Brett Brown is certainly taking notice.
“I thought that Shake has obviously emerged to be our clear starting point guard with the group that we have,” Brown said on Tuesday. “You’d have to expect for him to be in a significant role as Ben becomes healthy and comes back into this. He’s playing high-level basketball.”
When Simmons does eventually return to the floor, the Sixers will probably move Al Horford back to the bench so that opens up a starting slot for Milton. The Sixers can slide him into the shooting guard spot and then move Josh Richardson over to the small forward spot and Tobias Harris to the 4. That is the luxury of what this team has with the pieces they have.
Also, on top of that, the guy just has been playing some good basketball.
“I put in a lot of work with the coaches,” said Milton. “I try to watch film and stay locked in and waiting for an opportunity to be called.”
Josh Richardson, who like Milton is from Oklahoma, stayed in his ear and he wanted to make sure he’s ready for any call he receives.
“I see the work he puts in,” said Richardson of Milton. “It’s hard to not want anything but the best for a guy like that. Especially when you’re from the same place. I’ve just been staying in his ear, keeping him positive and confident and hopefully, he keeps going forward with that.”
The Sixers have had such an issue spacing the floor with the starting unit on the season and a guy like Milton can help in that case. He has proven that he can be a guy who can spread the floor and really make a big difference on this team on that end. [lawrence-related id=27438,27430,27420]