The Philadelphia 76ers offseason is coming to an end and our followers at The Sixer Sense still have a few questions before the preseason begins.
This will be the last edition of the Philadelphia 76ers mailbag before the start of the preseason. After an eventful summer in which a lot of questions surrounding the Sixers were answered, there isn’t too many concerns surrounding the team. With that in mind, there were only two questions from this mailbag.
This first question comes one of our Facebook followers named Mike Stank
"“When are the Sixers going to stop wasting time and get a Point guard thats no scared and can actually shoot a 3, which in turn would do a tremendous amount for the offense? Asking for a friend”"
Well Mike, the good new is that the Sixers may have as many as four on the roster this season. Ben Simmons has been working on his jump shot this summer, so there’s a chance he comes in as an aggressive shooter. If he does come out shooting this year, there’s no way of knowing how efficient he will be. However, if he is an efficient shooter, then there’s a chance that not only does he make his second All-Star game, but possibly be named All-NBA as well.
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Trey Burke has always an aggressive scorer in his career, but isn’t the most aggressive 3-point shooter. Last season, he only averaged 2.7 3-pointers per game while converting 35.2 percent of those attempts. It’s not a high volume, but it will keep defenses honest. Burke might be the closes thing to an aggressive scoring point guard that the Sixers have on the roster.
Raul Neto isn’t the high volume shooter that Burke is, but Neto has shoot 37.7 percent from downtown for his career.
On the off-chance that Shake Milton becomes the primary backup point guard, he showed in the G-League last season that he might fit the mold of a scoring point guard. He averaged 24.9 points and 5.8 3-point attempts, while making 36.9 percent of those shots. The combo guard has the capability of developing into what Mike described, but it probably won’t happen this season.
Without a lot of cap space moving forward, the Sixers will have the rely on the draft if none of the players on the roster can fill that role. Either developing Simmons and Milton, or by drafting a point guard is the best way the Sixers can get a 3-point scoring point guard of the future.
The last question was asked by Brian Lepore, one of our Facebook followers.
"“How’s Bens jumper comin along?”"
Based on one video, it looks like its coming along nicely. It isn’t perfect, but usable. It will be interesting how much of this he can translate to using in an NBA game. It’s undeniable that it’s a positive sign for Simmons in regards to his confidence. There’s no way of knowing for sure how good he’s become at jumpers until the preseason begins at the very least.
That finishes up the last Philadelphia 76ers mailbag of the offseason. It appears that most concerns are still around the point guard position based on these questions.