Philadelphia 76ers should still be looking at free agents

The Philadelphia 76ers are far from a finished product as the season is set to begin, looking at the free agency market is one option for them.

Despite going 4-1 during the preseason, the Philadelphia 76ers revealed two potential weaknesses that they could have in the regular season. I recently wrote about both, the first being the team’s lack of consistent 3-point shooting and the second being the questions about the point guard depth. With both those being potential issues entering this year, Sixers general manager Elton Brand should keep an eye out on the free agent market.

Matisse Thybulle and James Ennis figure to be the first two wings off the bench this season, but they both struggled with 3-point shooting this preseason (stats per RealGM). Reserve Furkan Korkmaz also didn’t shot great from the 3-point arc either (stats per RealGM).

Zhaire Smith and Shake Milton are the only wings that came off the bench that shot well from downtown (stats per RealGM), but neither appears to have a serious role to begin the year. Both are entering their second year with very little NBA experience, so it’s doubtful that head coach Brett Brown will rely on either young player much to begin the season.

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The Sixers need an experienced wing that can space the floor. Two veteran free agents that come to mind are J.R. Smith and Joe Johnson. Smith is a career 37.3 percent marksman on 3-pointers and Johnson has shot 37.1 percent from deep in his career. Smith only played a handful of games last year and Johnson didn’t play at all last seaosn, but was in the Detroit Pistons training camp before being waived. Both would be great additions to the roster.

Milton, along with Trey Burke and Raul Neto make up the 76ers point guard depth chart. All three have different skills, but none of them have been able to pull away from the group. Rumored by Brian Jacobs of The Painted Lines, the Sixers depth chart could be in the following order Neto first, Milton second and Burke third. If this proves to be true, the overall collection of talent isn’t too impressive and the club could choose to look elsewhere for more talent.

Unlike the free agency market for wing players, the point guard free agency market is somewhat scarce of any legit talent. The only established talent available is Jeremy Lin who is playing in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). For his career, Lin has averaged 11.6 points and 4.3 assists, while making 34.2 percent from the 3-point line. However, Lin could only join Philly after the CBA season ends in March.

Currently, Philly has a full 15-man roster, so the only way to add a player is by getting rid of one. If they waive a player, it would most likely be Burke, because his contract isn’t fully guaranteed. They could also trade a player, like Korkmaz for example, but they would have to wait till December to do so, because he was signed as a free agent this summer and there are trade restrictions on newly signed free agents.

The Philadelphia 76ers have a pretty good roster, but it could use some fine tuning in regards to point guard depth and 3-point shooting. If those two areas could just see just slight improvement, it would make things that much easier for the rest of the roster.