Philadelphia 76ers: Ranking every player on the 2018-19 roster post-trade deadline
11. James Ennis III
The season hasn’t played out exactly as James Ennis III had probably hoped. This past offseason, he signed with the Houston Rockets and was supposed to serve as one of their replacements for Trevor Ariza as a “3 and D” guy.
Ultimately, Houston decided to go a different direction from Ennis, as they traded him to Philadelphia for draft considerations.
Philadelphia had been working to retool their bench following the trade for Tobias Harris. In Ennis, they hoped a change of scenery would help jump start his season. Thus far, it hasn’t exactly panned out, as Ennis is still trying to fight for playing time in the rotation and is averaging less than three points per game for Philadelphia.
Currently, Brett Brown has been playing two of the three among Furkan Korkmaz, Jonathon Simmons, and Ennis. Unfortunately, none of the three have forced his hand into giving them more playing time.
Ennis hasn’t been producing the way Philadelphia had hoped and oddly has been lacking on defense, but he does still have the look of a potential “3 and D” player. At 6-foot-7, his length allows him to get into passing lanes and make life difficult for other teams wings. On offense, he has quietly put together strong shooting percentages from the corners. Per NBA.com, Ennis is shooting 44.4 and 41.7 percent from the left and right three-point corners, respectively.
For the remainder of the season, Ennis needs to play hard nosed defense when given the chance and continue to work as a floor spacer with his strong corner three efficiency. If he can do that, he’ll force Brett Brown to give him more playing time.