Will Kendall Marshall Get a Shot at More Minutes Soon?

Was keeping Kendall Marshall on the team a signal that he will be getting more minutes soon?

Trade deadline day had the Philaelphia 76ers pretty busy, as usual. Sam Hinkie and Jerry Colangelo weren’t looking to get a huge deal done, but were actively listening to calls on Jahlil Okafor and Kendall Marshall. At the end of the day, the Sixers took a bad contract in Joel Anthony that they will likely soon release, and waived JaKarr Sampson in the process, but with the hopes of signing him again, assuming no other team claims him on waivers.

Some wondered, “why JaKarr?” when this news came out, because Sampson has actually played decent minutes and done okay in his position. He’s been ineffective from anywhere but close to the hoop offensively, but he’s pretty tough on defense and won’t stand down to any physically threatening player. Many fans were upset that Kendall Marshall wasn’t cut instead of Sampson to make room for the Joel Anthony deal to go through.

Marshall is averaging just 14.1 minutes per game this season, and played a combined 27 minutes in the eight games before the All-Star break. After some truly bad games that he played, he was moved to the bench, and has sat for many full consecutive games. A lot of the time when we see him play, it’s in garbage time.

More from The Sixer Sense

There’s lots of reasons the Sixers decided to waive Sampson and not Marshall, despite the seemingly worthlessness of Marshall on the floor. For starters, Marshall’s contract is a lot more expensive than Sampson’s, and although that has meant nothing to the Sixers in the past — their highest paid player this season, JaVale McGee, isn’t even on the team — they are already expected to dump $2.5 million from Anthony’s contract, so to add onto that with Marshall’s contract would be an excessive money loss. Sampson’s contract, which comes in at $845,000 isn’t such a big deal to dump.

Although money clearly had a lot to do with it, I don’t think that was all that was behind the decision to cut Sampson and not Marshall. As I noted earlier, the Sixers have been perfectly fine taking money losses in the past this season, so it doesn’t make sense for them to play conservative now. Perhaps Marshall is about to get a “second chance” and receive a bump in minutes.

Although I have been highly critical of Marshall, I do believe that an increase in minutes and some more opportunities to succeed would help this point guard to show success. Without a doubt Marshall has been a decent player on other teams in the past, but he hasn’t been given the minutes to show that he can do that for Philly. I would be fine giving him some opportunities in games to be the primary backup to Ish Smith, just to see if he can show some improvement.

Coming back from the All-Star break seems like the perfect time to give him another shot, with some rested legs and a fresh mindset. Brett Brown played him for 10 minutes against the New Orleans Pelicans. He scored an impressive 9 points and dished out 3 assists. If that is a precedent for how he will produce after the All-Star break, I’ll take it.

Another thing the Sixers could be weighing out or anticipating is the chance of an injury to any player in their backcourt. If Ish Smith gets injured, that moves T.J. McConnell to the starting spot, and if Marshall was gone, there would be no one to back T.J. up. In a similar scenario, if T.J. gets injured, someone will have to step up to back Ish up.

Sure, the Sixers could move Isaiah Canaan over to the point guard spot, but that’s not his natural position, and that leaves a lot of the shooting guard duties to Nik Stauskas, who still seems to lack a lot of confidence.

Next: Sam Hinkie Revealed Positives of the Trade Deadline

Sampson’s position wouldn’t be devastated, even now, to see an injury. Robert Covington, Jerami Grant, Carl Landry, Hollis Thompson, and heck, maybe even Elton Brand could all step up if any one of those guys gets injured.

The likely reasoning for Marshall keeping his job was the lack of backup power in the backcourt and money reasons, but don’t be surprised if down the stretch of the final games of the season he sees more minutes and a better chance at success.