3 goals for Sixers guard Shake Milton: Become *good* wing defender
This has been the general fan experience watching Shake Milton defend point guards up to this point in his career:
The Sixers have one consistently good on-ball guard defender currently expected to play for the team next season: Matisse Thybulle. That is quite problematic, barring the seemingly impossible return of Ben Simmons. Shake Milton will not solve that problem. He’s not a good enough athlete to even pretend to challenge someone like De’Aaron Fox at the point of attack. Good thing he doesn’t really need to.
Milton is listed at 6-foot-5, 205 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan. He is a wing, not a guard. The Sixers will play him at guard, almost by necessity, but his skill set makes much more sense in the context of a small forward, rather than a point guard. That is most true on defense, where Milton’s poor lateral quickness can be better compensated for when he’s not guarding the ball at the start of every possession.
The tools for Milton to be a competent defender are there. He’s long and has put on significant muscle since first entering the league. Even if he can’t stick with point guards on a regular basis, he should be a steals magnate, using those pterodactyl arms to prey on passing lanes. If he’s stationed on the wing, and consequently afforded more opportunities to roam, then he will be in a much better position to succeed.
If the Sixers can rely on Milton to aptly guard the wing, and to provide more of an impact defending off the ball, then it becomes much easier to stomach 20-30 minutes of action on a given night. The offense is imperfect, but you can generally rely on it. More often than not, defense is most at fault in a “bad” Milton performance.