Philadelphia 76ers See Backup Role For PG Ish Smith

The Philadelphia want to bring free agent point guard Ish Smith back, but in a reserve role

He has played in the NBA for six seasons. He’s played for the Philadelphia 76ers for the past two seasons, with a stop at the New Orleans Pelicans. In the past six seasons, he’s played for nine different NBA teams.

He’s been a rambling man in the NBA so far. A player with enough skill sets to warrant a look, earn some playing time, but not enough to garner enough interest from the team to give him a more permanent home. In fact, he was relegated to the bench.

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That is, until the Philadelphia 76ers traded two second round draft picks for the return of his services to Philadelphia. From the moment he returned, the Philadelphia 76ers were “less” bad. In fact, for a short span, they were nearly playing at a .500 pace.

But injuries returned to the young roster, ripping leading scorer Jahlil Okafor out for the season just two months after the arrival of Smith. Without Okafor’s offense, the team limped to close out the season. In the end, he brought the play of the team up, but watched it sink again.

Ish Smith is a fighter. Despite the team’s struggles, he remained fierce. He spent time mentoring his backup point guard T.J.McConnell, and he took shots because there were few open shooters on the Philadelphia 76ers line ups.

He played a role in two of the top five lineups for the Sixers, even more remarkable in the fact that he joined the team over the Christmas holidays. In fact, Smith was the go-to guy in the last five minutes of the game. It was not just that he was one of the better shooters on the team, but he had the audacity to take the shot without hesitation. Sure, some he missed. But he made the shots that counted too. It was his 61 points scored for the Sixers that placed him 57th in the 2015-2016 rankings of NBA clutch player.

While the team focuses on the free agent market with a plan to upgrade the team, it is not forgetting the contribution of Ish Smith to the team. They have a spot for him, but are only guaranteeing it as a bench role for now.

"“I would like to come back,” Smith said. “Philly has been my home. The fans have been great. Everybody has been great.” Ish Smith as interviewed by Keith Pompey of Philly.com"

And so, free agency is about to begin. The Philadelphia 76ers have already passed on extending a qualifying offer to either Isaiah Canaan or Christian Wood, essentially eliminating either from the future plans of the team.

The team will likely not pursue retaining Elton Brand, whose role as mentor was paramount to developing Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel last year, but was signed with an understanding it was a short term deal.

Next: NBA Rumors: Philadelphia 76ers Aiming At DeMar DeRozan

And so, Ish Smith is the last question mark of Philadelphia 76ers free agents this year. He deserves a spot on the team going forward, if only to continue to help develop the young backcourt. When the Philadelphia 76ers needed help at point guard last year, he stepped right in and then stepped up. His instantaneous synchronization with head coach Brett Brown’s scheme was impressive. Now it’s the Philadelphia 76ers turn to step up.

It’s the right thing to do.