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Scottie Wilbekin’s Ride With Sixers Will Continue

By Josh Wilson

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The Philadelphia 76ers most enticing offseason story–aside from Joel Embiid being obsessed with junk food and Shirley Temples–has been surrounding the point guard position. Several players have been lobbying for the position, including Scottie Wilbekin.

Wilbekin has been a part of the Sixers since he went un-drafted in 2014, in some way, shape or form. Wilbekin joined the Sixers for the Las Vegas Summer League in 2014. He wouldn’t stay with the team though, and ended up going overseas to play.

This summer, he was back, and impressed the Sixers enough to get a training camp and preseason invitation. He spent some time with the Orlando Magic in Summer League as well, but strictly looking at what he’s done for Philly, with the Sixers he scored 14.6 points per game.

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Summer League success is great, but it’s not enough to get you a spot on an NBA final roster. Summer League is a completely different breed when compared to the regular season, and you have to capitalize on your performances if you’re expecting to win a roster spot.

Some would say he’s done great in the preseason, and looking at it in a broad sense, he really has, averaging 10 points per game. Others point to his last two games, where he scored just three points and five points (averaging out to four points per game in the last two games). In the game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he scored just three points, there’s an excuse for him–he only played for three minutes.

It also helps his case that the only shot he took was a game winning three pointer, that he made with ease. He stepped forward, heaved up a three–one of his specialties–and watched it go right through.

This also brings up another quality that Wilbekin brings to the table, one that’s not exactly quantifiable, the clutch factor. It was just one example so far, but he could be the guy taking the last shot later on in the regular season too. The Sixers will be looking for someone to do this. Jahlil Okafor will obviously be taking some of those last second shots, but if the Sixers trail by three, they won’t be having him stepping back beyond the arc. They need a late game guy with range.

The second poor performance–which came in the second loss to the Wizards–had no excuses to back up Wilbekin’s poor play. He played a full 24 minutes, shot 2-7 from the field, and 1-6 from the three point line, only scoring a grand total of five points.

With the time he’s been given, for the most part, Wilbekin has impressed coaches and shown that maybe his Summer League wasn’t a fluke. He’s scoring points at a pace of 0.57 per minute, which is decent, considering that Okafor, who is considered to be a lock on the final roster is scoring at the same exact pace.

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Two of the point guards that will probably be making the roster are injured–Tony Wroten and Kendall Marshall. That leaves a need for at least two guards to step up and take over their roles, a starter and a reserve. Isaiah Canaan looks like he’s going to make the roster, and some have said that Nik Stauskas could transition to be a backup point guard until the injury blog blows over. In reality, though, it would be better to have a true point guard backing Canaan up–and Wilbekin could be that player that can come in strong off the bench, scoring double digits with just 15-20 minutes of play.

Wibekin is just one of the many players on the roster with the quality of “upside.” The problem here, is of course that it’s hard to predict if the players will demonstrate their upside or not. I expected Wilbekin’s fire to dwindle out by now, and it definitely hasn’t, so my money is on him for this season.

Let us remember, head coach Brett Brown has told the media himself that things are not certain for the point guard right now, and it may truly come down to the final game to figure out which point guards will stay and which ones will leave.

Next: Christian Wood Will Make Sixers Final Roster

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