Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Milton is what’s needed to shake things up
Out of patience and low on options, his job security leaking and the Sixers trending ordinary, a strange season having advanced to surreal, Brett Brown last season would make a defining lineup decision.
Shake Milton, who’d won games and status with his lateseason shooting and floor presence, would be his starting point guard.
That idea didn’t turn out well. Milton sagged. The Sixers were playoff failures. And Brown lost his job. By the time Doc Rivers could reconvene the team a couple of months later, there were new shooters, different hopes, a recommitment to Ben Simmons with the ball and a quiet push of Milton back to the bench.
That move, unlike the last one, has worked.
“I just wanted to do what was best for the team,” Milton said Saturday after an early walkthrough practice in Memphis. “It doesn’t matter if I start or not. It’s an opportunity thing.”
Milton had played in nine games before Saturday, started one, missing three due to virus contact tracing. From the settling influence of Rivers, to a soft early schedule, to the Miami Heat losing two games without the bulk of its stars last week at the Wells Fargo Center, there were reasons the Sixers were 8-4.
Undeniably, Milton was on that list.
Providing the instant-offense surge that helped lift him from a roster afterthought to a postseason starter last season, Milton had scored in double figures in his last six games. That included Thursday, when he went for 31 in 27 minutes against Miami, shooting 11-for-15, 3-for-4 from distance.
Even with Seth Curry continuing to recover from a coronavirus and remaining in a required quarantine, Milton was not used as a starter. Instead, Rivers went with rookie Tyrese Maxey, mixing Milton into the backup flow.
For whatever reason, some players are just better suited to roll into a game in progress. Milton is showing every indication that he is that kind of teammate, dominating against the Heat after his three-game protocol hiatus.
“He played great,” Tobias Harris said, after the 125-108 victory over Miami. “He just got right into it. He got out there and pushed us.”
So comfortable was Milton in his barrage against the Heat, Harris kiddingly wondered just how inactive he really was during his absence.
“I was trying to figure out if he had a gym in his place, because he was out there hooping,” Harris said. “It was like he never missed a beat.”