Philadelphia 76ers worst offseason move was re-signing Furkan Korkmaz

The Philadelphia 76ers made a lot of good moves this summer, but one bad deal they made was bringing back Furkan Korkmaz.

After strong moves like trading for Josh Richardson, signing Al Horford and negotiating a contract extension with Ben Simmons, it’s safe to say that the Philadelphia 76ers had an overall good summer. Despite all of these strong transactions, general manager Elton Brand did produce at least one very questionable deal in re-signing Furkan Korkmaz.

Korkmaz is a former first round pick that has very little to show for his efforts. In two seasons, he’s only averaged 4.9 points and 1.9 rebounds, while converting 32.3 percent of his 3-pointers. Despite showing significant growth from his first to his second season, it seems like a poor idea to re-sign a player who hasn’t shown enough consistency in his role as a shooter when the franchise is trying to compete for a title.

The team already has four young wings that they will be developing this year. Zhaire Smith and Matisse Thybulle are bound to get minutes this season, Shake Milton is still a project in the works and Marial Shayok will be developing in the G-League on his two-way contract. James Ennis is the only veteran wing coming off the bench entering this season.

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It’s good that the Sixers aren’t giving up on their investment in Korkmaz, but it’s going to be hard for him to prove his worth this season, based on the current depth at the position. Hopefully, this gamble on Korkmaz’s potential as a shooter pays off, but it appears to be a long shot at the moment.

Korkmaz’s lack of production nor the abundance of youth at his position makes re-signing him a bad move in itself, because those two issues can be rationalized. Korkmaz has shown enough growth to take a flyer on him and despite being 22-years-old, he’s entering his third season which puts him as the second most experienced wing off the bench. What makes this a bad move by Brand is the fact that there were better options available.

Players like J.R. Smith, Thabo Sefolosha, Joe Johnson and even Carmelo Anthony would all be better options at the end of the bench. All are better offensively than Korkmaz has shown to be up to this point. Smith and Sefolosha are better defenders than Korkmaz is as well. While it’s understandable that re-signing Korkmaz helps keeps some continuity in the locker room, any of those four players can produce much better on the court than Korkmaz can.

dark. Next. Who can the Sixers bring in as the 15th man?

With much better options still available on the free agent market, it can easily be said that the Philadelphia 76ers re-signing Korkmaz was the worst move they made this offseason. Hopefully, he can reach his potential to justify this re-signing, but entering this upcoming season, bringing back Korkmaz appears to be the weakest transaction made by the franchise this summer.