Sixers’ helpful free agent signings
By the end of last season Mike Scott was entirely out of the rotation, and Dwight Howard was self-imploding in the conference semifinals. Fast forward to the beginning of this year and Georges Niang and Andre Drummond look like incredibly valuable upgrades.
The different between Scott and Niang as the backup forward has been so much larger than I think anyone could have foreseen, with Georges taking over several games recently as the Sixers battle health and safety protocols. His connective passing ability is something this team hasn’t had at his size in quite some time, someone who processes the game faster than those around him, leading to much easier offensive possessions. On top of his already highly valuable 3-point shooting, Niang is also a capable passer as well as someone who can put the ball on the floor if needed. Much like Korkmaz he also can be a surprise creation guy in a pinch, as you can trust him to put up a smart shot with the clock winding down if the rest of the offense isn’t producing.
When he was initially signed, there appeared to be more memes than reasonable basketball takes, but Drummond has proven to be a solid backup center in his time so far. He’s consistently set strong screens, a valuable asset for a Sixers big man as outside of Maxey, our guards don’t have top tier burst that allows them to get downhill on subpar screens. Along with being a short roll threat he’s also shown very high level processing speeds with the ball in his hands, being able to hit he next pass during his post ups or while he’s rolling to the basket, an area of much needed improvement compared to Howard last year. His assist to usage ratio being 0.84 (85th percentile) compared to Howard’s 0.45 (28th percentile) last year has allowed more of the offense to flow through him, something that has been vital to a bench unit that hasn’t seen much consistency with the amount of injuries/health related incidents the team has had so far.
The additions of these two players, on the contracts they signed no less, can not be over stated, especially in a year where a lot of uncertainty surrounds the team, we know what we’re getting with Niang and Drummond.
(All statistics recent as of Nov. 8)