12. Furkan Korkmaz
Anything you can do, Furkan can do better.
Um, we’ll get back to that…
A 6-foot-7, 21-year-old sharpshooter from Istanbul, Korkmaz is a shooting guard with the potential to play small forward. After Redick, Fultz, Covington, and Chandler, Korkmaz appears to be the next guy up at either of those positions, which means, if the coaching staff believes in him, he should play regular minutes.
Even without Redick and Chandler missing some games here and there or the coaching staff reducing their minutes during various stretches of the season, there’s a real path to 10-15 minutes of playing time a night for the Summer League superstar.
The positives on Korkmaz are that he can shoot the lights out, he has good size, and he moves well without the ball.
The negatives are that he’s inconsistent offensively and doesn’t defend well.
I see a good regular season player. When you can shoot like Korkmaz and you’re the third man up at two different positions, you’re going to see the court. In the regular season, streaky nights and bad defense can be hidden.
The kid has enough talent to be a random spark plug, occasionally hitting anywhere from 2-4 threes, buoying the bench on off nights and keeping us optimistic about his future.
There’s always the chance Furkan does learn to play enough defense and does shoot more consistently. He strikes me as someone who will figure it out. I believe we will see a more polished offensive product this year, but we’ll have to wait until next year and beyond for the defense.
If he contributes meaningfully, great. No need to trade or scour the waiver wires for a solid bench guy. If he doesn’t contribute, people might get frustrated, especially after similar players Justin Anderson and TLC failed to develop well. Third time’s the charm?
As long as we see positive signs this year, the 2018-19 season should not be the final verdict on Korkmaz.
In the end, perhaps anything you can do Furkan can’t do better, but the potential is there, and so should the playing time to produce for the first time in his career.