76ers fans please welcome Mike Scott, your new Threegional Manager

Since we had to say goodbye to Corey “The Drunken Dribbler” Brewer when the team let him go, we’re lucky that there is now a new awesome nickname in town: Mike “The Threegional Manager” Scott, a play off of Regional Manager Michael Scott of ABC’s The Office played by Steve Carell.

Tobias Harris is the big headliner for the Sixers from last week’s trade deadline. That’s going about as well as GM Elton Brand could have hoped for now two games into Harris’ tenure with Philadelphia. And Boban Marjanović, being 7’3 and really likable, is going to soak up the majority of the attention among the other reserve additions.

But Mike Scott joins them as well and he is probably the second-best player they brought in from a talent perspective at the deadline. Let’s get to know him a bit.

He made our radar this year when Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported that the Sixers were linked to Scott because they were shopping their first round pick for some bench depth back in mid January. At the time having Scott come off of the bench without removing Wilson Chandler from the lineup would have been a nice lift, depth-wise. In some ways, he and Chandler (who was sent to Los Angeles as part of the deal) are comparable players.

Scott was the 43rd pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks out of the University of Virginia. He’s a 30 year old stretch four. He was a five-year college player and is 3rd all time for the Cavaliers in rebounds (944) and double-doubles (34). He graduated with a degree in Anthropology. His pro stats can be found at this link via Basketball-Reference.com.

Offense

The main thing the Sixers need a player to do offensively is shoot. This season Mike Scott ranks in the 78^th percentile for catch and shoot players, per Synergy Sports, pretty high marks. He’s connected on 47-out-of-115 catch and shoot three point attempts this year, good for 41 percent. Dating back to the start of the 2017-2018 season he’s connected on 40.8% of his catch and shoot 3’s.

He actually shoots more 3’s than 2’s. 57.8 percent of his field goal attempts are from 3. That’s just about the same as JJ Redick’s 57.4%.

Here was the awesome moment when Ian Eagle growled “Mike Scott he’s not human!!!” after his 5th straight triple a few years ago:

Scott is a good spot up player and excels in transition, 95^th percentile. Philly likes to get stops then get out and run. The team is 9th in fast break points per game and 15th in transition points per possession. They’ll be looking for him to get out on the wings and drill 3’s or fill lanes and finish.

Here he gets out wide and gives a nice passing angle to his point guard.

Defense

He wasn’t known as a defensive stopper throughout most of his career but he has really improved there the last season and a half. It’s been a bit of a turning point for him along with the shooting. Defensively he ranks in the 80^th percentile per Synergy. A year ago with Washington he was also well above average on D, ranking in the 66th percentile. He attributes some of this to being healthy and focused on his craft.

It’s because he can cover a couple of positions to a degree, although it depends on the speciality of the player he’s switching onto.

He’s most reliable when asked to cover a player spotting up because he doesn’t over commit on close-outs (85h percentile on spot ups). He’s reliable defending a pick-n-roll when he’s the one defending the big. He’s athletic, but not so much that you want him out on a guard in space.

He’s definitely a sturdy body to have in the post 6’8, 237 lbs. He seems comfortable banging and can clean up the defensive glass. His 20.6% defensive rebound rate is good enough to be one of the Sixers top 6 for the category. He was a monster on the boards in college.

His total Def Rtg is 103 for all players who have logged 750 minutes. That puts him on par (at least statistically) with Stanley Johnson, Justise Winslow, Bam Adebayo, Jaylen Brown, Khris Middleton, and Andre Iguodala all very strong defenders. If this is in part because he plays more so against reserves than those names, that’s not the worst news because it’s likely the role he’ll have now.

If he can play some good D in Brett Brown’s system maybe he can earn the nickname “The 3nDegional Manager.”

Here he makes life tough on Kevin Love:

Pencils down. We did enough work for today. Now let’s just get to some fun stuff about him.

Good times with the Threegional Manager from Chesapeake, Virginia

I wonder if there is already someone in the running on the bench or coaching staff to be the “Assistant (to the) Threegional Manager?” Is it too late to give Dwight Buycks a 10-day contract for this or trade for Dennis Schröder?

Unlike the fictional Michael Scott the Sixers’ Scott doesn’t end every scene by producing a gun when he tries improv:

Here Scott keeps a straight face and gets silly deciphering some Polish words and makes a joke about pizza. He clearly has a sense of humor and a solid dead-pan delivery. Maybe NBC Philly’s Serena Winters can bring this side out of him a bit.

This was funny. Here he appears to use every once of restraint in his body to not “rat tail” a ref with his towel:

Here was the time he actually did a self-alley:

He sometimes appears to have weirdly good handles, and is confident with his touch on floaters. Here he once “got saucy” according to NBA TV:

Here is why Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors may have actually shuddered when he heard the Sixers got Scott:

Here is his impression of Dr. J (not really) on a sort of fancy layup.

Here he made Clippers owner Steve Ballmer celebrate really really hard. Intensity.

On a serious note, he has battled ankle and knee injuries in the past, healed utilizing platelet-rich therapy and was the victim of racial profiling by rogue law enforcement during some rough points in his life. But he’s overcome it.

And best of all, here is the time in 2014 when Vince Carter asked him about the emoji lips he has tattooed on his neck and he didn’t think Vince was hip enough to get that they were actually emoji tattoos. (He actually has loads of emoji tatts):

Courtesy of Dan Devine, then with Yahoo Sports:

Do you get many comments on the court from other players?

Actually just the other day — Vince Carter. I have that lips emoji on my neck and he was asking me during the game if that was a specific lady’s lips or whose lips or what. I said ‘No, it’s no one’s lips. It’s just the emoji lips.’

Vince is getting pretty old though. Do you think he really got it?

[Laughs] I mean, I don’t think he understood they were emojis. Obviously I didn’t have time to sit there and explain the whole emoji thing in the middle of the game. I just told him, ‘Nah, nah, it’s no one’s lips, and kept going with the game.

Scott was second only to Joel Embiid and a +21 in Sunday’s afternoon victory against the Los Angeles Lakers. The forward was 3-of-8 from the field with 2 steals, 2 boards, and a dime in 21 minutes.

He says “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” is one of his favorite shows. He likes ping pong and video games, he once scored in the wrong basket during an 8th grade game, and if he could be anyone for a day it would be Mike Tyson per NBA.com.

Hopefully now you feel better prepared to watch and enjoy Mike’s next game.