The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Milton earned his starting shot at point
The Sixers hadn’t had a game, been through a formal practice, engaged in a shoot-around or had played shirts and skins for three months when Brett Brown spilled his loose plan for Shake Milton.
He was leaning to him as a starting point guard. Kind of. Mostly. Probably.
“To think that he’s going to perform at that consistent level that he showed prior to the pandemic would be ambitious,” Brown said. “I do think if he can capture the large part of that form offensively and defensively, he really has a chance to play a significant role in a rotation capacity in the playoffs.”
That was just over two weeks ago. By Tuesday, for whatever it was that was happening either in the BubbleDome or in Brown’s imagination, the doubt was whisked away, gone, smothered. Shake Milton was going to be his point guard for the final eight games of the regular season and for the postseason that will define, one way or another, Brown’s Sixers future.
“There is a poise that he has as a person that can help him navigate through a pressure situation of the NBA playoffs,” Brown said, just two weeks later. “And I do believe how he is wired from a human perspective can help him deal with that environment in a more calm way.”
That sentiment had some impressive vertical leap. It went from hedging that it would be “ambitious” to expect that excellence Milton has shown in the Sixers’ most recent games would continue, to a formal flip of the way the franchise views former point guard Ben Simmons.
There has to be one reason: Milton can play. Said one Sixer: “He plays really well. He can shoot the ball. He has a high IQ. He gets to the rim. He can finish. He’s just somebody you can play with. You can say something to him and he will put it into play and try it out.”
That player was Simmons, who will replace Al Horford in the starting lineup up front to make way for Milton in the backcourt. And while most professional athletes will endeavor to spread the expected feelgoods when asked about a teammate, some can have a way to make their inner thoughts clear. Simmons did not do that.
With practices closed to the press even when there are not health concerns, and with whatever is happening in Orlando under top secrecy, it’s difficult to tell how well Milton is playing. What has not been tough to see is that Milton has been special during the Sixers’ last 19 games, 16 of which he had started.
Brown known for having a preference for shooters, revolutionary as that vision is, the Sixers had one fear as they entered this season: That they would miss the ability of J.J. Redick to come off a screen, catch and swish a three-point attempt. Even during the hiatus, the organization found a way to add a shooter, Ryan Broekhoff, who was quick to liken himself to Redick. Though Josh Richardson has had value on the perimeter, both offensively and defensively, he’s shot only 32.7 percent from beyond the arc. Similarly disappointing from distance have been Tobias Harris (36.2) and Horford (33.7).
Early in the season, Brown was often caught reverse-engineering all basketball logic and explaining why the Sixers weren’t built as a threepoint team anyway. For a while, it sounded reasonable. After so many years of roster massaging, the Sixers finally believed they had an unbreakable starting unit of Simmons, Richardson, Harris, Horford and Joel Embiid. Yet something has been off. Injuries haven’t helped, but it’s been deeper than that. It’s why the Sixers are in sixth place in the East as the season is about to resume.
Milton can be the difference. If so, it will be as unlikely a story as will have developed all season in the
NBA. A year ago, Milton played 20 games as a rookie, none in the playoffs. In the first training camp this season, he was just another guard in a frenzied scramble for perimeter minutes.
Yet when Richardson was injured around midseason, Brown passed over more proven options and rammed Milton into the starting lineup, shocking veteran observers. More recently, Milton has remained there as Simmons recovered from a back injury. The results were exceptional. Milton’s 45.3 percent threepoint shooting was a team-high. He has scored in double figures in the last seven games, and in eight of the last nine. He dropped a 39-spot on the Clippers, in L.A., in an NBA showcase game. He has defended. He has made few if any horrifying young-player mistakes.
He has been enough to be a difference-maker to a team desperate for a nudge.
“You’d have to say Shake has put his hand up in a pretty definitive way, initially,” Brown said before camp. “Does it play out like that after a few weeks like that in Orlando and in a camp? I don’t know.”
The time off couldn’t have helped, not with the momentum Milton had been generating. But whatever Brown saw early in Orlando was enough for him to stop the speculation, hand Milton the ball and accept the consequences.
“I feel good,” Milton said. “I feel ready to go. Of course, everybody has had their time off and it’s going to be a little different getting in the swing of things. But overall my body feels healthy and I am just excited.
“The time has definitely given me a chance. Everybody has nagging injuries, but the time off gave myself a chance to get healthy. I feel great. I am dialed in. I am ready to go.”
If so, he will give the Sixers’ title chances their best shot.