Sixers Wire now gives their rankings for the top five shooting guards in Philadelphia 76ers history.
The shooting guard position has always been what it’s called a “shooting” guard. They are offensive-minded and are the leaders of a team’s offensive attack. In the history of the Philadelphia 76ers, they have had quite a few of those offensive-oriented players at the position.
Just like we did with the point guards, we are now going to rank the top five shooting guards in Sixers history. For those who were looking forward to seeing Allen Iverson in the point guard rankings, you will now get your wish here in the shooting guard rankings.
Just like with the point guards, we will begin in reverse order so let’s get into this list.
Former Philadelphia 76ers forward Jimmy Butler doesn’t like being guarded by white guys.
There is always a stigma against white guys in the NBA. The stigma is that they’re just shooters and that they aren’t very good on defense. Former Philadelphia 76ers forward Jimmy Butler believes in that second part and he lets his teammates know about.
Former Sixers guard JJ Redick told a story about how he was guarding Butler on the low block in practice one day and Butler was upset about it. He said he was mad that they put a white guy on him and he carried that attitude with him in his first season with the Miami Heat.
Sharpshooter Duncan Robinson added that Butler lets it be known that he can’t guard him every time they are at practice. He didn’t see him, or Redick, as challenges defensively.
Butler was having a terrific first season in Miami before the season’s suspension due to COVID-19. He was averaging 20.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 6.1 assists while guiding the Heat to the 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. [lawrence-related id=28481,28474,28465]
Former Philadelphia 76ers guard Jrue Holiday tells a story about his rookie days with the Sixers.
It has been seven years since the Philadelphia 76ers sent Jrue Holiday to the New Orleans Pelicans and he is now joined by another former Sixer in JJ Redick. The latter has a podcast known as The JJ Redick Podcast where he has a lot of his teammates on to talk about the league.
In his latest edition, he had Holiday on to talk about the differences in the NBA now than when he entered the league in 2009. One thing that Holiday touched on was his rookie duties with the Sixers and that there was a clear ranking among the team from veteran down to rookie.
Holiday explained to Redick:
There was this ranking of as a rookie, you were actually a rookie, and there were duties that you had to do and you weren’t insubordinate. If you were insubordinate, there were consequences.
What would happen if you were insubordinate? Holiday described one punishment as a “rubber run”:
I did everything that Elton Brand told me to do, Willie Green told me to do, Andre Iguodala told me to do, whatever they told me to do, I was doing it. 4:00 in the morning, I’m there. Whatever you need, bam…there was a rubber run, you know like, The Magnums. Back in the day, we had a lady that came and talked to us and gave us the huge bag of [condoms].
Holiday and Redick then continued to have a good conversation about all of their rookie days in the NBA. It was a very entertaining conversation.
The current Sixers now have to prepare for a 4-game west coast swing where they will be missing their two best players. [lawrence-related id=26743,26717,26707]
The Philadelphia 76ers want to continue to grow Furkan Korkmaz in a JJ Redick-like role on offense.
The Philadelphia 76ers are not the same team they have been in the past. There is a lot more size on this team and there is a much different way they have to play. There is not a lot of running and gunning too much, it’s more deliberate to cater to Joel Embiid and Al Horford.
However, with the emergence of Furkan Korkmaz in recent weeks, the Sixers want to see if they can rekindle the past a bit with a JJ Redick centered type of role for him. That means being the designated guy who runs the dribble handoff with Embiid, and even Horford to an extent, and allow him to launch three’s in that way for him.
“With the emergence of Furk, a week or two weeks ago, you want to dust off the JJ package because it truly had moths on it and we brushed it off and that’s one of them,” said Brown on Wednesday. “They were very successful in it and at some point you always considered it, but I think with the emergence of Furk, it made you think about it a little bit more quicker and more seriously and last night we used it, I think seven or eight times in a row and I like what I saw.”
With the success the Sixers had in running that set on Tuesday, they might be open to running it more with other guys as well. Maybe give Shake Milton or Josh Richardson, when he returns from injury, a run with that type of offensive action.
“I think you can see the potential,” Brown continued. “I also think you might be able to include others in that same action, but Furk is the most, I suppose, paralleled to JJ on our team.”
The Sixers will now take this newfound offensive approach and hit the road starting Thursday with a visit to the Atlanta Hawks. That will begin a four-game road trip that will include visits to the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat, and the Milwaukee Bucks. It will be a tough trip overall for a team that normally struggles on the road. [lawrence-related id=24502,24491,24482]
Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown had flashbacks of JJ Redick while watching Furkan Korkmaz.
The Philadelphia 76ers needed a shooter. They needed somebody who could come in and give the team a spark when it’s needed and somebody who can spread the floor. They lost that over the summer when JJ Redick signed with the New Orleans Pelicans, but they may have found it again in Furkan Korkmaz.
In Friday’s 100-89 win over the Chicago Bulls, Korkmaz scored a career-high 24 points while knocking down six shots from deep and the Sixers played through him in the second half where he scored 18 of his points. Coach Brett Brown dusted off the old Redick playbook and used Korkmaz in his place.
“For us to see him come in and do JJ like stuff and have that type of a bomber, that was different,” said Brown. “We put him in a bunch of stuff. We ran five plays in a row going to him like I had flashbacks of JJ. Like we jumped into JJ’s package.”
A lot of the old Redick packages involve a lot of dribble handoffs and allowing him to just fire it up from deep. On Friday, the Sixers ran a few plays like that to allow Korkmaz the space needed to get up the shots needed for his offense.
“He changed the game,” Brown added. “He gave us a spark and whether it was the 3-ball, I don’t remember JJ dunking like that. I forgot that one, but the long shot and just bam, bam, bam quick points fueled our defense.”
Philadelphia has not been able to run that type of offense with this group due to the lack of a sharpshooter like Redick, but it helps when Korkmaz can have that type of game. Brown admitted the playbook was so old it had mothballs on it.
“When you choose who’s got the capability to either set screens or slip screens, then you’re running backwards and you’ve got to turn your shoulders and get squared and balanced and have the ability to shoot that shot. That’s a hard shot to shoot,” the coach explained on Korkmaz. “We have put him into that action that used to be sort of anointed for JJ. It has like dust on it, mothballs, but we drug it out of the closet and he’s been very successful with it.”
This comes after Korkmaz made some big shots from deep in Wednesday’s win over the Brooklyn Nets so it gives him a lot of confidence moving forward. They will start a road trip on Saturday against the New York Knicks where they will look to turn it around on the road where they have had their struggles.
With the 2010’s coming to a close, Sixers Wire has put together the top 10 Philadelphia 76ers of the decade.
The 2010s weren’t a great decade for the Philadelphia 76ers but the franchise saw some solid talent walk onto the Wells Fargo Center court. Most people will remember this decade of Sixers basketball for the infamous “Process,” but there were some good moments for Philadelphia to reminisce on too.
As the decade comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at the top 10 players who donned the Sixers red, white and blue jerseys.
Stats in the 2010s: 16.0 ppg 6.7 apg 6.2 rpg 1.7 spg
Carter-Williams was in Philadelphia for a total of 111 games over the course of 1.5 seasons, and it wasn’t all that pretty. He did win Rookie of the Year in 2014 and he had a few exciting games. But Carter-Willims was not the franchise point guard the Sixers wanted him to be. His award in 2014, and the numbers he put up, earn him a spot on this list.
(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
A matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans has the makings of a big game for Brooklyn Nets center Jarrett Allen.
The last time the Brooklyn Nets faced the New Orleans Pelicans, Zion Williamson was on the sideline, having just undergone arthroscopic surgery to repair his torn right lateral meniscus. The Nets also had Kyrie Irving and Caris LeVert, who dropped 39 and 23 points, respectively, in Brooklyn’s 135-125 win at Barclays Center on November 4.
Williamson will be at Tuesday’s tilt down on the bayou, so will LeVert, but neither of them will be suiting up. (Irving won’t even be in attendance. He and Kevin Durant are not traveling with the team on their two-game road trip.)
As much as the Pelicans have been one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA through the first eight weeks of the season, Brooklyn isn’t guaranteed to have an easy time at Smoothie King Center (as much as that sounds like the name of a theme park, not a professional sports stadium).
Now, JJ Redick (left groin soreness) is also out, per the Pelicans. That helps. But if you’ve caught a glimpse of Jrue Holiday you know he’s got as much fight in him as anyone.
By no means does that mean Holiday has the edge over Spencer Dinwiddie. He’s just not going to back down. Talent plus determination is always a scary combination.
Then there’s New Orleans’ leading scorer, Brandon Ingram. A solid test for Taurean Prince and Wilson Chandler. Maybe Garrett Temple, as well. But he won’t beat the Nets on his own. Ingram needs Holiday.
The forward also needs either Lonzo Ball or Josh Hart, the latter of which can be a pest at times. (Hart is also good for a solid gif everyone so often. So DeAndre Jordan needs to be prepared.)
Credit: Nicole Sweet-USA TODAY Sports
If anyone is going to have a big night for Brooklyn, besides Dinwiddie, it should be Jarrett Allen. He failed to get into double figures against the Toronto Raptors on Saturday and did so again in Brooklyn’s matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday
So, Allen is due. Additionally, he should eat Jaxon Hayes’ lunch every time they share the floor (same goes for Jordan). That’s not to say Allen won’t do well against Derrick Favors — he absolutely should — but going up against Hayes is the type of matchup Allen should dominate every time (two reasons being he nearly has a 40-pound advantage and Hayes is a rookie).
Lonzo Ball’s move to the bench could be a signal that the Pelicans may not be convinced he is part of the future. Could a trade be in store?
Coming into the season, the New Orleans Pelicans were seen as a darkhorse candidate for the playoffs in the Western Conference. Despite the bottom dropping out of the conference, the Pelicans have fallen even further this season. Now, instead of playoff seeds, New Orleans is once again looking at lottery odds.
Among those who have suffered most during the first half of the season is Lonzo Ball. A recent move to the bench was a long time coming. While some expected Ball and Jrue Holiday to excel in the backcourt, their massive struggles have been a microcosm of the season as a whole.
From the moment he was dealt to the Pelicans, there were questions about Ball’s fit with the team. The gluttony of young guards on the Pelicans’ roster paired with Holiday as the team leader means someone is likely expendable. As the season worsens, David Griffin will likely listen to trades for any player not named Zion Williamson.
Is Ball the odd man out? Logic would suggest it is more likely the team deals the older Holiday first. But every player will have a price. Here are five trades where the price might be right for Ball.
Joel Embiid, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds to go along with five assists, was happy that he got to see Redick again as the two had a close relationship during his two seasons in Philadelphia.
“It was good. I miss him,” said Embiid. “We kept him in check, kind of, so that was good too. It was good to see him.”
The Sixers have missed Redick’s shooting to a certain extent, but they have been able to figure it out as they have become one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the league despite not having a serious sharpshooter. Who wouldn’t want to have Redick’s deadeye 44.8% shooting from deep?
“He’s been great,” Embiid added on Harris. “He’s been scoring the ball efficiently. Defensively is where I’ve seen a lot of improvement, so he’s been great for us and I hope he keeps it going.”
The Sixers will now head back out on the road to take on the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday at the Barclays Center. [lawrence-related id=21313,21304,21261]
The Philadelphia 76ers give New Orleans Pelicans guard JJ Redick a tribute video in his return to Philly.
Despite only being in Philadelphia for two seasons, JJ Redick made a positive impact on the 76ers during those seasons. His impact on both the floor and in the locker room really helped the organization set a culture and establish a lot of success.
As he returned with the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, Redick received a lot of love and admiration from both the Sixers organization and the Philadelphia faithful. It is well deserved after two seasons of him averaging 17.6 points and deadeye shooting from deep at 40.7% from deep.
All of that earned him a tribute video in the first quarter during a timeout and a lot of love from the fanbase.
Redick’s shooting can never be fully replaced, but the team has found somebody suitable to fill the job. His replacement, Josh Richardson, has done a lot of good things for the team and even though he is not quite the shooter that he is, he brings a lot of other things to the floor.
Philadelphia currently leads New Orleans 31-22 in the first quarter. [lawrence-related id=21261,21254,21239]
