Words to live by. #SummerSixers pic.twitter.com/uagf5WwpQ2
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) July 8, 2015
Who says we don't have any perimeter play??
The Sixers' Utah summer squad beat the Celtics 76-62 after Furkan Aldemir broke the game open in the 3rd quarter with a pair of deep balls. Yup, you read that right. Furkan Aldemir. Both teams were stinking up the place in the first half, starting the game a combined 1-16, and going in to the half with the Sixers up 27-26. Assistant coach Billy Lange (head coach of the Sixers Utah team) clearly straightened the team out at the half, as the Sixers came out in the 3rd playing a much more controlled game, making the extra pass to find the open man. The Sixers also crushed the Celtics on the boards, 55-35, and a trio of big men were really the story for the Sixers.
So about that Furkan guy. He finished the game with 11 pts (including 3-5 shooting from downtown), 14 rebs, a steal and 3 blocks. Move over Covington! Summer league is the basketball laboratory, where teams can experiment with different looks, and can encourage players to try new things. So don't for a second think that Furkan teeing em up from downtown was him going off script.
If you're not excited for the Utah Summer League tonight, know this: The Sixers have encouraged Furkan Aldemir to attempt three-pointers.
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) July 6, 2015
While it's great to see that Furkan has some touch from downtown, don't expect this to be a big part of his game going forward. Furkan excels at grabbing boards and setting screens, two things he did quite well last night. He does not excel at offense. His barrage from deep aside, he frequently bobbled on-the-money passes from PG T.J. McConnell, threw some ill-advised passes of his own, and seemed hesitant with the ball in the post. Furkan's destiny is to be the Turkish poor-man's Reggie Evans — a pest on defense, a rebounding machine, and a brick wall for guards to run their defender into. It's hard to know how many minutes he can get next year with such a crowded front court, especially with the recent additions of Landry and Thompson, but if he keeps showing such exceptional activity like last night, the Coaches will want him around.
Furkan may have stolen the headlines for one night, but the play of 3rd overall pick Jahlil Okafor will remain the main storyline of summer league. Big Jah finished the night with 13 points and 9 boards. He seemed a bit fatigued, perhaps having played his first set of back-to-backs since lord knows when. The fatigue is a non-issue — we all know these premier draft picks don't work out a ton leading up to the draft. I have no doubt Brett Brown and his sports science program will have Okafor in "career-best fitness" by the end of this year.
Jah showed some more flourishes of his fantastic post-game, including a sweet spin move past his man showing how light the big man can be on his feet. He did seem to be getting the ball out of position a lot again last night, similar to the first half of the game on Monday. Part of that may be his teammates not finding him in the right spots, but he'll also have to learn to fight for deep post position early in the possessions to avoid getting the ball 18 feet from the rim on the wing.
Okafor's 9 rebounds included a couple nice O-boards leading to 2nd chance points. In fact, for the second night in a row Jahlil had as many or more offensive rebounds (5) as defensive (4). At Duke, 42% of his rebounds came on the offensive end. The combination of Jahlil's giant frame and the fact that he rarely strays far from the rim on offense means he is frequently in good position to muscle his way to the ball on short rebounds. This will help the Sixers, who finished 24th in the league last year in OffReb%. I'd hope though that after some time Jahlil would be able to average more than 4 defensive boards per game. He doesn't chase down balls really, preferring to box out his man instead, which isn't necessarily a bad thing (players can create rebounds without actually grabbing them). But proper positioning for defensive boards is an area the coaches can work with him on.
The 3rd noteworthy big man of the night was 2nd round pick Richaun Holmes (37th pick overall), who was fairly quiet for most of the night until finishing off the Celtics with a strong 2nd half. He ended the game with 13 pts (including a 3-pointer — move over Furkan!!!), 8 boards, a steal and 2 blocks in only 18 minutes of play. He played bigger than his listed 6'8 frame, including some athletic blocks, a steal where he snatched the ball right out of the air, and a few emphatic dunks. Richaun's motor and high activity level almost ensures he'll be around the team next year, he's too intriguing to pass on. Again though, given the logjam in our front court, he's a good candidate for some extended run with the Delaware 87ers, where he'll get way more minutes and a chance to develop his game. Richaun definitely turned some heads last night though.
A few quick thoughts to wrap up:
- Jordan McRae, one of the stars for the Sixers in last year's Summer League before bolting to Australia for the year, looked terrible on Monday. He was forcing everything, trying way to hard to score. Last night he played much more within himself, being patient, taking what the defense gave him, and even setting up some teammates. He came into the Utah League saying he had been playing some PG and was looking to do the same for the Sixers, but after Monday's showing that seemed like an impossibility. Last night's game showed that perhaps he can handle PG duties, but he still has a ways to go before he proves he fits in with this team.
- Could the announcers at the Utah Summer League (Criag Bolerjack and Ron Boone) be any worse? On Monday night it was pretty obvious they had no idea who half the players on the floor were, which might be excusable if it wasn't your paid job to know who they are. Also, I'm 99% sure Bolerjack misheard "Jah" at one point and is now calling Okafor "Jaws." I suppose even announcers need Summer League to work out the kinks.
- While I'm complaining about Utah Summer League, I really prefer the weird floor cam angle of Orlando Summer League to the traditional stadium view of the Utah one. Summer league is something that should happen in a practice facility with be filmed by a hand-held camera.
- T.J. McConnell continues to do a nice job running the show for the Sixers, and he is definitely hustling his ass off to make the squad. Given the paucity of PGs on the team, he probably has a non-zero chance, but the lower level of talent in Summer League is making him look better than he is. He threw a couple of nice dimes, but doesn't seem to excel at any one thing in particular. Highly doubtful he sniffs the PG position for the regular season squad.
Final game of Utah Summer League is Thursday at 9pm EST against the Utah Jazz.
