Marco Belinelli’s impact on the Philadelphia 76ers

With Marco Belinelli recently joining the Philadelphia 76ers, what type of player are the Sixers getting and will he be able to improve the Sixers’ underperforming bench.

Marco Belinelli and the Philadelphia 76ers have been lousy connected. Ever since Sam Hinkie traded the rights for Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic to the Sacramento Kings for Jason Thompson, Nik Stauskas, Carl Landry.  Oh, don’t forget that 1st rounder, which has turned into an unprotected 2019 first round pick.  Oh, and that pick swap allowing the 76ers to move up to the third pick of the 2017 draft.  That pick became the foundation of the trade with the Boston Celitcs to draft Markelle Fultz.

The was a method to the madness.  After all, virtually everyone questioned why the Kings agreed to  the lopsided deal.  So one sided that only blackmail or mind control should’ve forced them to accept it. In the end, the Kings wanted to clear cap space, which they used to sign Ramon Rondo and Belinelli.  In fact, it’s all spelled out to you in a July 3, 2015 article from Sports Illustrated writer Rob Mahoney.

That Kings trade for a king’s ransom

And Mahoney goes on:

"“Belinelli can be streaky from beyond the arc, though the very fact that he’s willing to bomb away from the perimeter while maintaining a good percentage (39.2% for his career) should help open up the floor for Sacramento. To put his gunning in context: Despite Belinelli playing just 1,388 total minutes for the season, his 230 long-range attempts would have ranked second on the Kings only to Ben McLemore (390). It’s a modest move for a team with deeper issues, but the addition of a role player needn’t solve all of the Kings’ problems.”"

The above quote is from Rob Mahoney in this article.  At the time, he awarded the Kings a B for signing Belinelli. While years have passed since Belinelli joined the Kings, he averaged at least 9 points and shot over 30 percent behind the 3-point line over the three years he played there. For his career, Belinelli averages 9.8 points, 1.7 assists, 2 rebounds per game while shooting 37.7 percent from three.

The EverReady Benelli?

Now at 31 years old, Belinelli doesn’t appear to be declining. So far this season, he averaged 11.4 points, 2 assists, and 1.9 rebounds per game while making 37.2 percent of his threes over the 52 games. So Belinelli is living up to the expectations the Hawks had for him when they traded Dwight Howard and the 31st and 41st picks..  Which begs the question, why did the Hawks want him off the team bad enough that they were willing to release him with a buyout? The truth of the matter is taht the Hawks did not live up to their own expectations.

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The Hawks are the worst team in the Eastern Conference. So low, in fact, that they are tied with the Phoenix Suns for the worst record in the NBA at 18 wins and 41 losses.  On an NBA rebuilding team, no veteran has a true purpose.  So Belinelli, a 31-year-old on an expiring contract, found himself on the NBA Trade block to help the Hawks’ tank. Then, the butcher’s block.

Playing time premium

The Atlanta Hawks are now intrigued with Tyler Dorsey, a rookie the Hawks selected that 2017 41st pick.  And whenevrer a team is high on a player, they find ways to get him playing time.. For the season Dorsey was averaging 4.8 points per game while shooting 35.8 percent from three-point range. He did all of this despite a game average of just 12.7 minutes per game. His minutes increased to over 20 minutes per game in all but one of the games since the Hawks reportedly began fielding offers for Belinelli. The ruse, the team stated, was to keep Belinelli healthy for a trade that never happened. In fact, Dorsey started the first game of career in the Hawks final game before All-Star break.

The Sixers’ need bench help and Belinelli has already shown a flair for heroics in the role. In fact, he could become their best player off the bench player after T.J. McConnell. The Sixers’ bench is currently averaging 27.3 points per game which ranks them 26th out of 30 teams. Before Belinelli arrived, the top three scorers in points per game on the Sixers’ bench were Jerryd Bayless (7.9), McConnell (7.3), and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (6.3).  The season average from Belinelli, at 11.5 points, makes him their best bench scorer by a significant margin.

First impressions are the best

Marco Belinelli made an incredible first impression with the Sixers in their 104-102 win over the Miami Heat. It as a very important one, as  Joel Embiid did not play in the matchup.  The magnitude of the game rose ever higher as it was against the Miami Heat,  a team that is one spot behind the Sixers in the playoff race, Belinelli was the team’s third highest scorer with 17 points including making three out of the five three-pointers he took that game.

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Adding Belinelli won’t provide the Sixers with the same level of production that trading for Tyreke Evans at the trade deadline may have. But in a move that cost them no draft picks or players, Belinelli was a great pick up.