Philadelphia 76ers: The duality of Furkan Korkmaz, the idea and the product
The Philadelphia 76ers seem determined to give Furkan Korkmaz another opportunity.
When Furkan Korkmaz checked in midway through the first quarter on opening night, my eyebrows raised. It came out of nowhere — Korkmaz had gotten decent minutes in the preseason, but few expected him to earnestly contend for regular season minutes.
In the Philadelphia 76ers‘ win over Boston, Korkmaz was on the court for 19 minutes. Matisse Thybulle, who earned 21 minutes, was the only reserve to see more playing time. Korkmaz was the Sixers’ seventh man on opening night, against a long-tenured rival and division opponent.
Objectively speaking, Korkmaz wasn’t bad. He drew a charge and he didn’t screw up offensively. His willingness and ability to compete on defense were positive signs. He even hit his lone 3-point attempt.
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Brett Brown has loved the idea of Korkmaz even since he has donned a Sixers uniform. Brown falls hard for silky shooters who can spread the floor and run DHOs. It’s not the identity of this season’s team, but with a dire need for shooting, Brown has shown little hesitance to roll the dice on year-three Furkan.
To a degree, it’s a sensible decision without any massive consequences. The bench is still thin, and the Sixers could benefit from teams perceiving Korkmaz was a moderately viable 3-point threat.
The issue is Korkmaz’s lack of efficiency in broader context. He’s a career 32.1 percent shooter from deep, and followed up his 1-for-1 performance on opening night with an 0-for-3 performance in seven minutes on Saturday. As soon as Korkmaz ratcheted up the volume — Brown said he wants to develop a ‘bomber’ — the results were putrid.
Korkmaz only played seven minutes in Philadelphia’s win over Detroit because he was actively bad in every respect. Shooting, defense, ball movement. It was all bad. Korkmaz was played off the court, and then Shake Milton and Raul Neto comfortably outperformed him.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Zhaire Smith. It appears as though Philadelphia’s confidence in the 2018 first-round pick is wavering, at least with regard to the immediate future. It doesn’t seem far-fetched, however, to project Milton above Korkmaz in the rotation.
Where Korkmaz differs from J.J. Redick and Marco Belinelli, Brown’s sharpshooters of the past– beyond, you know, hitting a high percentage of his 3s — is his style. He prods the defense with pump fakes and dribble drives, which often lead nowhere. His release isn’t near as quick, and he’s not a proven off-balance shot-maker.
The Sixers re-signing Korkmaz as the 15th man was a fine move. He’s young, and there’s still some room for optimism after a strong FIBA World Cup performance this summer. But to this point, Korkmaz has been unable to put together a long stretch of impactful NBA basketball. It’s getting close to time for the Sixers, on the hunt for an NBA title, to abandon their pursuit of a higher Korkmaz.
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Odds are, Korkmaz isn’t what the Sixers need him to be. He looks more primed for a return to Europe than a transformative season in Philadelphia. Brown can use him as a safety valve, but it would take massive signs of growth in the coming weeks for Korkmaz to truly deserve playing time over Milton and/or Smith — ‘bomber’ or not.