Philadelphia 76ers: Who should be the closer?
By Uriah Young
Shake Milton
Shake Milton garnered a lot of attention last week. Praise by teammates and coaches after practices should elevate his confidence as high as the Disney castle flag. It is just more upside for the young player out of SMU, whose unflappable performance against the Clippers showed that the NBA lights maybe aren’t bright enough for him.
He seems to have a cool demeanor when playing within the offense. We know the sample size isn’t sufficient to just hand him the ball in the most critical moment of a big game, but let’s check out some of his strengths.
Shake can score. On quite a few levels. Whether he wants to pull up from deep or drive to the lane, he is adept at maneuvering around the perimeter or in the paint. We’ve yet to see how good of a passer he can be, but in that situation his dribbling skills could bail him out of trouble unlike Embiid.
More impressively, he can finish at the rim with either hand. Yes, Shake is a young player, and it would be unlikely that Brett Brown would draw up a play for him in a game-winning situation. But if he’s on the floor and a play breaks down, I wouldn’t be surprised if he stepped up and nailed a shot that could earn his team a dramatic victory.