Tony Wroten Back From Injury Slated For Release

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Tony Wroten has played a few games since returning from injury, and it’s time to give him his first player review of the season.  Unfortunately, with news on Christmas Eve, it’s likely to be his last.

The point guard situation has been a very interesting one for the Philadelphia 76ers this season, and Tony Wroten had found himself right in the middle of it all, at least until Christmas Eve 2015.  After sitting for the first two months of the season alongside Kendall Marshall (both due to ACL injuries) he’s returned (and so is Marshall) to action and put in somewhat regular minutes now. Balancing the roster’s backcourt has been no easy task for head coach Brett Brown who has had to work in playing minutes for Isaiah Canaan, T.J. McConnell, and Nik Stauskas on top of Wroten and Marshall’s minutes.

Related Story: McConnell and Covington are keys to success for Philadelphia 76ers

Wroten has now played eight games, and is back to regular minutes, or at least not getting as much of a restriction as he was before. With the opportunity he’d been given, it’s time to give Wroten his first performance review of the season. This is a bit of an early one for Wroten since he’s only played five games with somewhat regular minutes, but we have been forced to do so.  You see, the Philadelphia 76ers in an unexpected move just traded for Ish Smith.  To make room, Tony Wroten was let go.  Poof!  Head coach Brett Brown had said before Tuesday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies that Wroten was restricted to 25 minutes, which is all he would be getting in most cases anyway.

Wroten’s first few games were statistically minuscule given that he had limited minutes to play with. The last few games, especially on the scoring front, had been much better now that he is getting more minutes. This is all despite Kendall Marshall getting the nod at the point guard starting position for most of these games. Without a doubt, Wroten is wanting that starting position that is currently claimed by Marshall. In fact, there’s several guards looking to steal that position from him.

The good

The good is a bit minuscule with Wroten so far, unfortunately. He’s looking a lot like the Tony Wroten we saw last season, which isn’t necessarily an awful thing, but that Tony Wroten seemed to have a bit of an issue moving the ball around and getting the offense to score. Since his minutes restriction was lifted, he has had double digit points in most games, which is definitely encouraging. In three of the last five games, he’s had double digit points three times.

On top of that, he has pulled in a fair handful of rebounds, especially for a guard, since the restriction was expanded. He’s averaging 3.2 per game in the past five games.

Wroten continues to be a spark plug type of player off the bench, making sure he’s a player with some explosive tendencies bringing the ball up and dishing it out.

The bad

Tony has certainly had his struggles this year.

As with the Sixers in general, Tony is turning the ball over quite a bit. Wroten averages 3.4 turnovers per game, the most on the entire team. Wroten has already had four games with more than three turnovers, despite only appearing in eight games so far. On top of that, Wroten isn’t moving the ball particularly well, shown by his 4.2 turnovers per game in the last five games. The team is playing much better with Wroten off the court, shown by his on/off splits at Basketball Reference. This chart shows that when he’s on the floor, the teams effective field goal percentage is down, and so are the teams’ assist numbers (by nearly 10%).

This table also shows that opposing teams are playing better with Tony on the court, which is not a good sign.

Final grade

B-. Tony Wroten has played just a few games so far this season, so it’s not time to say he hasn’t had a good season. He’s coming off of an injury, still trying to transition to normal game play, and some road bumps are expected. Perhaps in January we can revisit Wroten’s game and see that he’s improved greatly, and see him correcting issues like his lack of assists and his turnovers.  The Philadelphia 76ers have seen enough, however.  Wroten has been a favorite of many fans.   He was released on December 24, 2015.  We certainly wish him the best.. G. Philadelphia 76ers. TONY WROTEN