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Pardon the interruption on this 4th of July, but we have some breaking Sixers news for you! In the shadows of the Kevin Durant to Golden State blockbuster and the impending Tim Duncan retirement announcement, the Sixers have gone international to solve their point guard deficit. Yahoo's Shams Charania had some news to share:
Euroleague star Sergio Rodriguez has agreed to a one-year, $8 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 4, 2016
Sergio Rodriguez's name has come up recently within the past week or so but was primarily connected to the New Jersey Brooklyn Roundels Nets. However, it seemed like Rodriguez wasn't really looking to make the jump back into the NBA based on some tweets/retweets from ESPN's Marc Stein.
@ESPNSteinLine @okdiario exactly, Marc. He told me three times in the same interview he is not coming back NBA. No, no and no!
— Paco Rabadán (@pacorabadan) July 3, 2016
Bryan Colangelo and crew must have convinced him otherwise. Here's a quick background on Rodriguez. He's a 30-year-old point guard who has been playing with Real Madrid in the Euroleague for the past 6 years, after a four year stint in the NBA with the Trail Blazers, Kings and Knicks.
Purely looking at the box score stats, according to the Euroleague website, he's averaged 10.9 points, 2.2 boards and 6.2 assists, shooting 40.9% beyond the arc on 127 shots for 2015-2016. He won Euroleague MVP in 2014 and Real Madrid (again, his team) won the Euroleague title in 2015.
I'll leave it to the readers to make quick google or youtube search to give you enough clips to get an idea of his type of game. But, he doesn't look like the same player that we saw during his first stint in the NBA.
He checks off a few boxes for the Sixers. 1) He plays the point guard position, 2) He is a veteran with plenty of basketball experience in the NBA and overseas 3) He's taking a short-term deal (arguably, it'd been preferable to get a 2nd year). He takes care of some of the ball handling responsibilities so that Simmons and the other rookies aren't carrying the whole burden, and his shooting percentages indicate that he can play a bit off ball to fit with Simmons' game.
Credit to Bryan Colangelo for getting creative in finding another short-term PG option. It isn't the sexiest name out there and I'm sure that many people will still be scratching their heads to this offseason. However, considering how insane this FA period has been, Colangelo has done a great job addressing short term needs/improvements while remaining flexible in 2-3 years when, hopefully, the team will be on the backs of Simmons/Embiid and looking to cash in on the FA market.