McCaffery

Though early, indications are the Sixers are better in many ways than the team rubbed out of the last postsesaon by Boston in four. One is the depth of perimeter skill. Rivers’ preference is to surround Simmons and Joel Embiid with shooters Curry, Harris and Danny Green. But Maxey has been a better shooter than he showed in his one season at Kentucky. Mike Scott can be streaky. Rookie Isaiah Joe has shown the shooting excellence that defined him at the University of Arkansas. Dakota Mathias, on a two-way contract, has enough of a reputation as a distance threat to pull defenders out to the arc. And Milton, who scored 39 against Rivers’ Clippers last season to prove he would no longer be caught in any G-League shuffle, was shooting 49.5 percent overall and 31.8 percent from the arc Saturday.

“Any time you start seeing the ball go in, you start feeling good, you start feeling confident,” Milton said. “And you just want to keep it going, especially when you have so many teammates around you who are so unselfish.”

Among the keys to the Sixers’ new commitment to finding open shooters is that they are deeper in ball-handling excellence than last season. That has enabled penetration, kicks and the chances for players, Milton included, to create their own shots.

All of that has made Rivers’ team a handful to defend.

“We are more free-flowing,” Milton said. “We have a lot of guys who are unselfish. Everybody is unselfish. And it’s about getting the best shot for the team, whatever that will be. When you have guys with that mentality and the ball moves like that, it’s not one-dimensional. It is harder to guard.”

Milton came to the Sixers from SMU on Draft Day of 2018 as a secondround pick through Dallas. He played 20 games as a rookie, then appeared in just 12 of the first 45 games last season. But there were some injuries, and they opened opportunities. And suddenly, if not shockingly, Milton began to produce, winning a chance to start in the final 19 games season, playoffs included. Rivers, though, has had other ideas. “Shake can be a starter or a sixth man,” Rivers has said. “He is going to be a heck of a basketball player. He really is. You can just see it all over him.”

And, recently at least, all over the boxscore, as he’d scored 31, 24, 19, 10, 18 and 14 points in his six most recent games.

“If Coach asked me to start, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Milton said. “And if he asks me to come off the bench, I am going to continue to do what I have been doing.”

For the 76ers, that has been plenty.