Philadelphia 76ers Rookie Report: Solid play all around

All of the healthy Philadelphia 76ers rookies are starting to see playing time with the club’s rotation set and NBA G-League’s season underway.

This rookie report will culminate the past two weeks from the previous. In the first rookie report, the Philadelphia 76ers first years players were seeing inconsistent playing time. However, now that the Sixers G-League affiliate’s season has started, all of the 76ers rookies who aren’t injured are either seeing playing time in Philadelphia or with the Delaware Blue Coats.

Zhaire Smith

The athletic wing is still recovering from his foot injury, so there’s not too much to report. Once Smith is ready for game action, there’s a chance that he could have a hard time getting off the bench consistently. The Sixers are deep on the perimeter coming off the bench, with J.J. Redick, Wilson Chandler and fellow rookie Landry Shamet cementing themselves in the rotation.

Landry Shamet

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The combo guard has made significant improvement sense the first installment of the rookie report. He’s been getting much more consistent minutes and his stats have gone up as a result. He’s now averaging 7.8 points, 1.2 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.2 blocks, while shooting 43.1 percent on field goal attempts, 39.6 percent on 3-point attempts and 78.6 percent on free throw attempts.

Shamet’s floor spacing has been a welcome sight off the bench for Philly and while it would be nice for him to contribute in more than just launching deep shots, the Sixers should be thrilled with his production overall.

Jonah Bolden

Since the last rookie report, Bolden hasn’t seen any floor time with the 76ers so his NBA season average still stands at 1.3 points, 0.5 rebounds, 0.3 rebounds and 0.3 blocks. However, he has seen floor time with the Blue Coats and in two games he’s averaged 20.0 points, 15.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 blocks, while shooting 41.9 percent from the floor, 30.8 percent from downtown and 71.4 percent from the foul line.

Unless multiple injuries occur, its unlikely that Bolden will see regular playing time with the Sixers. Delaware seems to be his best bet on getting meaningful playing time early on in this season. Philly has assigned and recalled the big man multiple times early on this season, as a way to assure depth for games, so expect that to continue in the short term.

Shake Milton

Like Bolden, it’s unlikely that Milton will see meaningful minutes with the Sixers unless multiple injuries occur. However, Milton has put up solid production while playing for the Blue Coats. He’s averaged 14.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.0 steal and 0.7 blocks, while making 38.8 percent from the field, 26.3 percent from the arc and 50.0 percent from the charity stripe in three games.

If Milton wants the opportunity to be called up to the 76ers, he will have to improve his shooting percentages across the board. His overall production is encouraging, if his shooting percentages improve, his points average should increase as well. His development over the next few months is something the Sixers should keep an eye on.

It’s clear that each active rookie the Philadelphia 76ers have do have aspects of their game they can improve upon. Now that the Blue Coats are playing games, that would allow both Bolden and Milton to get regular playing time in the G-League and Shamet to continue to anchor himself in the second unit which will allow these rookie to develop and improve their skills within game action.