Korkmaz showing signs of greatness

NEW YORK >> In just about one calendar year, he went from a player the 76ers barely wanted to a shooter they desperately need.

In less than one season, he went from not having his contract extended to having his role greatly expanded.

In barely any time, or so it seemed, Furkan Korkmaz became a small phenomenon.

“Heck of a story.” Brett Brown said, “isn’t it?”

Given it all, the revival of Korkmaz as a vital Sixer has become a gripping tale. But as with any great story, to use Brown’s description, there will always be an urge to read the next page. So it was Saturday, as the Sixers landed in Madison Square Garden, that the topic was raised: Where does this saga go from here?

Is Korkmaz, at age 22, on an arc to NBA stardom? Is he that capable a shooter? Did his two most recent games prior to Saturday, including a 15-point effort against the Nets and 27 minutes of running, dunking, shooting and even defending in a 24-point night against Chicago, validate the 6-7 forward’s star credentials?

Or could it be that, as has been the case in the NBA, and particularly in the Garden where a blast of dominance from above-average guard Jeremy Lin once had the basketball and media worlds immersed in “Lin-sanity,” that the interest in Korkmaz is destined to be dragged back to his twoplus seasons of general mediocrity?

“I don’t want to get too far out ahead of anything,” Brown was saying, surrounded by media sorts Saturday before a game against the Knicks. “But what I will say is this: He has exceeded expectations, at times by a lot. And I will say that he’s playing defense. We get that he can shoot. He can shoot. But can you get the shot off? He’s shown that ability. Can you go play defense and legitimately grow into being a two-way player? That was always, in my mind, the challenge.”

Amid the Sixers’ widespread dismissal of shooters in recent years, among them JJ Redick, Marco Belinelli, Ersan Ilyasova and Robert Covington, Brown said early that he planned to develop Korkmaz as a three-point threat. Given that a year earlier the Sixers wouldn’t even pick up the option on his rookie contract, and that Korkmaz sounded off about his perceived lack of opportunity, and the fact that he technically was a free-agent signing after last season, he seemed a longshot choice to be trusted with such an important role.

But through just over half a season, Korkmaz has emerged as a 39-percent three-point shooter, behind only Matisse Thybulle (40.5 percent) among the Sixers’ regular outside shooters. And as for Friday, when he delighted the Wells Fargo Center crowd with timely outside shooting, effort, a traffic dunk and responsible defense, Korkmaz suddenly appeared to be a vital piece as the Sixers adapt to playing without the injured Joel Embiid.

“Everybody saw that I was really feeling it, and then they just tried to find me,” Korkmaz said. “I also