Sixers: 3 goals for Jaden Springer in 2021-22 season

Understandably, the Sixers fandom has had more pressing matters to discuss than the rookie season outlook of Jaden Springer. Since draft night back in July, we haven’t seen much Springer discourse on Twitter, nor have the national headlines been devoting time to the 28th overall pick.

We are here to break that trend, if only for a brief moment. Let’s talk about Jaden Springer, the 18-year-old from Tennessee who convinced Philadelphia not to trade its pick. Springer was the No. 15 prospect on my personal board. He was, in this writer’s humble opinion, a credible lottery pick. For the Sixers to get him at 28 should be a bigger storyline than it is.

Springer did not make many new fans in Summer League, but since when has Summer League ever meant a thing? Remember all those pull-up, contested jumpers Ben Simmons hit in Vegas? Where are they now?

With that in mind, let’s look ahead to the 2021-22 season, and set some goals for Philadelphia’s most prominent rookie.

3 goals for Sixers guard Jaden Springer: Five 3-point attempts/36 minutes

For the sake of comparison, Tyrese Maxey averaged 4.0 attempts per 36 minutes from 3-point range as a rookie. Maxey was notably gun-shy from range, and it was perhaps his greatest weakness offensively. Springer is in a similar boat — he hit 3s efficiently in college, but only attempted 46 across 25 appearances.

Springer has to become more comfortable shooting at a high volume. His mechanics might need tweaking, but more than that, he just needs to fire away when afforded an open look. Springer doesn’t have a great first step, so his quickest path to consistently beating defenders off the dribble and working effectively as a slasher is to make them close out hard on his 3-point shot.

Again, Springer shot the ball well at Tennessee — 43.5 percent from range. It’s all about volume, and in the NBA, getting used to the longer distance. If Springer can comfortably pull the trigger on spot-up 3s, then it becomes much easier for his defense to earn him minutes. His primary competitors in the rotation are Shake Milton and Furkan Korkmaz, both of whom can spray a fair amount of 3s on any given night.