Jerryd Bayless
Season stats: 7.9 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.2 blocks, 41.6% FG, 37% 3PT, 79.5% FT
Grade: F
Jerryd Bayless’s locker room presence probably did a lot of good for team morale this season, but on the floor, he thoroughly disappointed. He played merely 39 games for the Sixers before Colangelo added Marco Belinelli to replace him, and those games were hard to watch.
Brett Brown had to play Bayless with T.J. McConnell in the beginning of the year, and that heavily contributed to all the leads the Philadelphia 76ers blew. Both guys are unathletic guards who cannot get to the rim and score at will the way other premier reserve guards like Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford can. Neither creates their own shot or has the ability to take over a game, so the lack of offensive firepower from the bench early in the year cost the team some wins.
Obviously, Bayless can’t take all the blame for the blown leads, but compared to the other high quality second-string guards around the league, it should have been clear to Brown and Colangelo back in the summer of 2017 that the Arizona product did not have the skill or athleticism to measure up with his counterparts, such as Terry Rozier, Eric Gordon, Lou Williams, or even Fred VanVleet.
Yes, the Sixers’ front office put the veteran in a tough spot, but the 29-year-old should have used his experience to make the most of his ability. Instead, he let his team down over and over again, driving Philly fans crazy in the process.