With the Philadelphia 76ers are a little short-handed right now with Josh Richardson shelved for a couple of weeks due to his left hamstring strain, that means other guys have to step up and the team as a whole knows it.
The big challenge will fall to Shake Milton who stepped up admirably in place of Richardson against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday. The big aspect of the Sixers offense that they will be missing without Richardson is his presence as a ball-handler in the pick-and-roll offense that allows Ben Simmons to be the roll man.
That part of the offense will now fall on Milton and coach Brett Brown wants to grow that part of his game now.
“It’s always on my mind to find a pick-and-roll partner for Ben,” said Brown at practice on Friday. “Then it’s on your mind ‘Well what do you do with the other players?’ namely the center. Do you play Ben at 5? So Shake comes in, he actually can run a pick-and-roll, he actually can shoot, and so that interests me.”
Milton has spent time both with the Sixers and with the Delaware Blue Coats as he continues to progress from an injury he suffered at the beginning of the season. He is averaging 21.0 points and 3.0 assists with Delaware and he’s at 4.3 points and 0.8 assists in Philadelphia. He had nine points and two assists against the Raptors.
“When you take out J-Rich, you wonder about ‘What’s it look like?’ if I want to pursue and continue to grow that part of Ben’s game and our understanding of how do we take the group and maximize it?” continued Brown. “And Shake has a chance to come in here and play a role in that and my intention is to continue to look at that.”
Simmons had himself a monster game recently when the Sixers knocked off the Brooklyn Nets on the road and he played a lot at center. That is a position that Brown wants to continue to grow him at and continue to see him as a player. The production that Milton gives will be huge in that development. [lawrence-related id=24160,24150,24141]