A 10-Game Evaluation of Ish Smith as a Philadelphia 76er
By Josh Wilson
When Smith was brought onto the team, someone had to be let go to make some space for the point guard. It made the most sense to let a backcourt member go, as they were already fully-staffed there before Ish. While some thought the likes of Kendall Marshall or even T.J. McConnell would be let go, an arguable fan-favorite Tony Wroten was released instead. The Sixers tried to negotiate Wroten as a part of the trade with the New Orleans Pelicans, but the Pelicans weren’t interested in him.
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Some thought Wroten hadn’t played enough to deserve to be cut, and that certainly may be true about the guard who had played just eight games prior to being released, which is a very quick evaluation, even shorter than this first evaluation of Ish Smith. At the same time, we had good impressions of Ish being a positive impact to this team 4 or 5 games in. Sometimes, a few games is all you need to see.
Wroten, in those 8 games, scored 8.4 points, 2.5 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game. He turned the ball over an unimpressive 3.6 times per game. Certainly, Wroten could have shown the team some better things in his 8 games as a Sixer. Coming off of an injury, though, we expected turnovers, and head coach Brett Brown said on several occasions that turnovers would be expected from Wroten.
I would have liked to have seen Wroten get more minutes, but that’s just not how things pan out sometimes.
Brown didn’t ever seem to have a dislike for Wroten, and often only spoke highly of him. At one point, he said, “[With Wroten] we have seniority — our version of a veteran. I’m just really excited for him and for us that we can welcome him back.”
Although more of a chance for Wroten would have been nice, it probably wouldn’t have happened, even if he was on the team. Looking at what’s happening to Kendall Marshall, who has played a total of just 30 minutes total in the last 7 games, Wroten might be better looking for work elsewhere.
But of course, onto Ish.
When comparing Ish to Wroten, it’s no competition. Ish certainly replaced Wroten and then did more. He’s scoring a ton more points, assisting at a higher rate, and turning the ball over a bit less. There’s no argument for keeping Tony Wroten (especially as a point guard) over Ish Smith, despite how much fans like Tony.
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