The Sixer Sense
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Sixers: 3 players with something to prove in the playoffs

By Lucas Johnson

Philadelphia 76ers, Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulles (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Philadelphia 76ers, Tobias Harris, Matisse Thybulles (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers, Furkan Korkmaz (Photo by Kathryn Riley/Getty Images) /

3 players with something to prove in the playoffs: Furkan Korkmaz

Fairly and unfairly I’ve been critical at certain points of Furkan Korkmaz‘s tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers. However, as this season has progressed in particular, he’s proven to be a valuable piece of head coach Doc Rivers’ rotation.

He’s averaging 9.3 points on 38.5 percent from downtown. However, the stats don’t show everything that Korkmaz brings to the Sixers. He’s the biggest threat of having a big game coming off the bench for Philly, yes even more so than Shake Milton. He’s also shown signs of being not being a negative on defense.

This year he has a Defensive Box Plus/Minus of plus-0.4, which is a career high, and the first time he wasn’t in the negative for that statistical category. Considering that Korkmaz has been played off the court in the playoffs in years past, this is a big development.

He’s doing it in the regular season which is great, however, he needs to do it in the postseason. If he can prove that he can stay on the court defensively during the playoffs, then he could see a pretty nice payday in free agency this offseason.