Philadelphia 76ers should change Shake Milton’s role moving forward

The Philadelphia 76ers‘ acquisition of James Harden will have a significant impact on the guard rotation once he makes his debut against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Harden’s arrival has the biggest impact on second year guard Tyrese Maxey.

However, Harden won’t only impact Maxey’s role. The former MVP’s arrival will also impact former second round pick, Shake Milton. When healthy this season, Milton has served as the backup point guard for Maxey.

Now with Harden on the roster, that pushes Milton down on the point guard depth chart. Head coach Doc Rivers shouldn’t let that stop Milton from getting minutes in his rotation, even if that means that Milton’s role has to change.

Milton’s role in the Philadelphia 76ers has to change moving forward.

Since the arrival of Rivers as the new head coach last offseason, Milton has been pigeonholed into the role of backup point guard. Milton has never been a pure point guard. He’s more of a combo guard or a scoring guard and it’s clear that he’s not a natural playmaker.

He’s at his best when he can look for his shot and find his rhythm. When that happens, then he has the capability to go off for 20 points on any given night. With Harden and Maxey having primary ball-handling duties, that will allow Shake to be the spark plug scorer he was during his second season.

This significantly increases the viability of Milton taking on the role as the Sixers’ primary sixth man. He has a lot to prove because he hasn’t looked like the player who showed real promise during his second season since then. However, if he can reach that level again, the 76ers’ bench unit just became a lot more dangerous.

Milton’s role will change now that Harden is on the Philadelphia 76ers, but it should be for the better moving forward.