Philadelphia 76ers Player of the Week: Shake Milton has potential

It was a very tough week for the Philadelphia 76ers and despite the injuries they experienced, there was one bright spot for the club.

This past week, the Philadelphia 76ers first lost Ben Simmons to a back injury and then Joel Embiid sustained a shoulder injury later on in the week. Losing their two core players was the last thing the Sixers needed, but Shake Milton provided a glimmer of hope in this otherwise abysmal week.

The 76ers lost Simmons in their defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks, but Milton showed potential coming off the bench. He finished with 17 points, two assists, and one turnover, while converting 5-9 from the field, 5-7 on 3-pointers, and both of his free throw attempts. He tied with Embiid and Furkan Korkmaz as Philly’s leading scorers in this defeat against a conference rival.

Milton started in the win against the Atlanta Hawks. He had seven points, five rebounds, six assists, one steal, one block, two turnovers, and three fouls, while making 3-7 from the floor and 1-3 from deep. Despite this being his worst shooting performance of the week, he still tied Tobias Harris with the highest plus/minus of the game.

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Embiid left the game early in the Sixers disappointing loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but Milton was able to shine in his absence. Milton ended the game with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, one block, and three fouls, while shooting 8-14 on field-goal attempts and 4-6 from downtown. He was the 76ers leading scoring in the losing effort.

In the victory against the New York Knicks, Milton was the team’s second-leading scoring. He finished with 19 points, three rebounds, four assists, one steal, two blocks, one turnover, and three fouls, while going 6-7 from the field, 5-5 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the foul line.

Honorable Mention

Despite missing a portion of the week due to injury, Embiid edges out Korkmaz for this week’s award. Embiid had a career-high 49 points against the Hawks. For the week, the All-Star big man averaged 23.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals, 1.0 block, 3.0 turnovers, and 2.7 fouls.

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For the past four games, Milton has averaged 15.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 0.5 steals, 1.0 block, 0.8 turnovers, and 2.3 fouls. If he can provide this type of production with Embiid and Simmons out, the Philadelphia 76ers won’t be without hope moving forward.