Life as an NBA shooter is marked by streaks; you’re either hitting every shot, or you’re in a serious slump. Sixers’ forward Robert Covington is no different. A D-League success story for the affiliate of the Houston Rockets, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Covington made his Sixers debut on November 17, 2014, against the San Antonio Spurs. The reigning rookie of the year of the D-League garnered six points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals, in just a few ticks under 17 minutes of playing time.
Seeing action in 70 games for Philadelphia in 2014, and starting in 49 of them, Robert shot 37 percent from beyond the arc, with an overall field goal percentage of 39.6 percent. So far in the 2015-2016 season, Covington is 33.8 percent from three, and 37.8 percent for field goals, showing some decline from last year. His stats this year may be clouded by the huge slump he endured, lasting from December to early January. For Sixers fans, it seemed like an eternity. Every single time he pulled up to take a shot, fans cringed. Rob’s defense had usually been the part of his game that was consistent, however, even that showed some depreciation. He eventually began to shoot his way out of his rut, notching a few solid games before finally making a splash against the Bulls on January 14th, scoring 25 points, including six three pointers, as well as one assist, and two steals. After stringing together a few more solid games, Covington weaseled his way back into the Sixers’ starting line up, where both his offense and defense seemed to improve.
It appeared that Lord Covington had returned, however, RoCo is back to making fans cringe, as he’s gone cold once again. In the Sixers’ win against the Nets on Saturday, he finally broke his streak of 12 missed shots, where his play has regressed back into yet another slump. He went 3-for-9 from the floor in the teams' overtime loss to the Clippers and missed all six of his shots from behind the arc. Covington's bipolar shooting tendencies turned into a career night against the Kings on Wednesday though, scoring 29 points, including a career-hight seven three-pointers.
The hope is that he will be able to shoot through inconsistency as he has done before, without getting stuck in that seemingly never-ending shooting abyss that he became accustomed to in December and January. He has his hot-streaks; and when he’s on one, he seems unstoppable. When he is cold, it could make a fan want to throw up. His good is really, really fantastic, but his bad is just so, so bad. The big question still remains, can Robert Covington become a consistent shooter?
Jenna Bonner, contributor to Sixerdelphia.com
