Sixers: Ranking each member of the young core

Ranking the Sixers’ young core — 7. Shake Milton

Perhaps I jumped off the Shake Milton bandwagon too soon. Not long ago, he was a legitimate Sixth Man of the Year favorite with the complete, unfettered confidence of Doc Rivers. Even now, it doesn’t feel like he has lost Rivers’ confidence, and the Sixers have an express need for a player with Milton’s skill set. He’s also under contract for another two seasons.

With that said, it’s hard to get excited about Milton’s future with the team. Even after a season in which he averaged a respectable 13.0 points on 45.0 percent shooting, Milton is being squeezed to the periphery of Philadelphia’s roster. He’s too one-dimensional, and more than that, he’s just not better than the players stationed ahead of him (Tyrese Maxey, Furkan Korkmaz, etc.).

Milton is a bad defender who struggles to make use of his physical gifts. He’s 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, but it hardly matters when he gets flambé’d by quicker guards in space, and bullied by stronger wings at the rim. His ability to impact winning is rooted almost entirely in offense, and last season, the offense was woefully inconsistent.

While he looked great in his half-season replacing Al Horford, Milton’s production then was predicated largely on making a high volume of 3s and sinking contested jumpers at an absurd clip. Last season, those shots didn’t fall quite as frequently, which put a greater emphasis on his ability to make passing reads and put pressure on the rim — neither of which Milton is particularly good at. He is jump shot dependent, which is a risky game to play.