Tony Wroten: He’s Back, In Possibly Rare Form

The Philadelphia 76ers welcomed Tony Wroten back Saturday with open arms, but how long will his great play last?

The Philadelphia 76ers fans had a lot to cheer about on Saturday, except for a win. The Sixers held a few different 10-point leads during their game against the Denver Nuggets, and the box score looked good for the team, as the ball was getting moved around well, and several different players were getting involved. Seven different players ended the game with double digit points. There was no shortage of sharing.

One of those high-performance players was Tony Wroten, in his first game back, returning from his ACL injury that had sidelined him for quite some time. His counterpart, Kendall Marshall isn’t far behind him.

We knew Wroten coming back meant a lot, but did we know it meant the offense would look completely different?

Wroten scored four points, and dished out three assists in 13 minutes on Saturday. He turned the ball over five times. But his stat line does not do his performance justice. In the periods that he was on the floor, Wroten was getting the ball moving well, often starting some great ball movements that led to big three pointers or drives into the lane. His net rating shows this, as his +/- was +6 (one of only three Sixers players with a positive rating) by the end of the game.

I took some time to dive into his performance yesterday, and see what he was involved in.

Wroten was a key component of this play, which just may be one of the most beautiful plays we’ve seen from the Sixers all year. He has the first pass, and then goes down to set a screen for Hollis Thompson, who is able to kick the ball out. This play eventually led to a three-pointer by Nik Stauskas, off of some great ball movement all started by Wroten.

Here’s some more examples of what he was able to do yesterday.

Jerami Grant has been somewhat uninvolved down in the paint this season due to Jahlil Okafor taking up a lot of those shots. Wroten got him involved on Saturday in Okafor’s absence.

Here, Wroten makes a nice step play, and shows that his ACL is completely healthy. This basket counted off of goaltending.

He seemed to do a good job of getting even guys like Nik Stauskas (who is shooting just 31% from beyond the arc) good looks and points. Stauskas ended the game with nine points, and went 2/4 from the three-point zone.

Wroten drove to the lane on several occasions, and made good passes when he wasn’t driving to the lane.

One has to wonder, though, will this continue? Of course, Wroten had to be feeling good, finally playing for the Philly fans he clearly loves after lots of waiting. The adrenaline had to be high, and no doubt, this probably pushed him to perform at a higher level. Maybe after a few games we’ll see him moving the ball a bit less.

Additionally, once Jahlil comes back, we may see this ball movement go down. The ball movement seems to end once it touches Jah’s hands. Unless he’s double teamed, he typically shoots. The offense was supposed to move through Jahlil, not to Jahlil. Hopefully that’s something the team can iron out and maybe Wroten can help that.

Wroten’s assist numbers may even go up as Jah comes back, since his passes to him will likely lead directly to made shots. On Saturday, he got the ball moving, but it didn’t touch his hands last before the shooter, so he didn’t get assist credit.

I couldn’t help but notice that the offense that ran when Wroten was on the floor was not one that ran when Okafor was around. I think the way Wroten played, and the way he impacted the game, may not be how he is able to impact the game when Jahlil comes back from his two-game suspension (he will be back on Monday) due to Jahlil taking over.

Okafor may inhibit some players on the team more than we thought he would.