Sixers Intrasquad Fantasy Draft: 14th Pick

Shout out to Liberty Ballers community member gramercy riffs, who has already made a fanpost about a Sixers intrasquad fantasy draft. We’re tweaking his idea a bit and putting the draft to a community vote in this exercise.

Slightly over two months ago, we were still under the impression Furkan Korkmaz was out of our lives for good (if not our hearts). Instead, after the Philadelphia 76ers brought Korkmaz back on a two-year deal (one-year guaranteed), and a summer that saw him play well with the Turkish national team, Furkan has risen to the lofty perch of 13th in our intrasquad fantasy draft, having received 61 percent of the vote to complete our Sixers Red squad.

For Korkmaz to carve out any non-garbage-time NBA minutes, he’s going to need to bring the hot shooting we saw in FIBA competition back to the states. Outside of Las Vegas, we’ve never seen Furkan’s vaunted shooting prowess live up to its reputation on this side of the pond (32.3 percent from 3 across two NBA seasons). Per The Athletic, Korkmaz recognizes that reality:

“Basketball-wise on the court, I need to be a more consistent 3-point shooter,” Korkmaz said. “That’s going to be my career.”

Sagely, our voters have done a nice job surrounding Joel Embiid with teammates he performed well alongside last season. Zhaire Smith, Mike Scott, and Furkan Korkmaz were the three returning teammates with whom Embiid had the highest net ratings for two-man lineups. He and Korkmaz had a plus-12.7 net rating across 414 minutes, well above JoJo’s plus-7.6 mark for the season. Crazily, Korkmaz is second to only Ben Simmons among current Sixers players in regular season minutes with Embiid, so there is a degree of familiarity between the two that would serve Sixers Red well.

We have now reached our final player vote, as whoever does not get picked for Sixers White between Jonah Bolden and Shake Milton will automatically get slotted onto Sixers Blue. It’s an interesting choice in that both players could fit structurally within Sixers White’s lineup. Although Shake was a prolific marksman in college, choosing him wouldn’t necessarily be the clear “more shooting around Simmons” path, as Bolden shot 35.4 percent from 3 last year, not far off Milton’s 36.9 percent in the G League, and above Shake’s 31.8 percent figure in limited NBA action.

Having Jonah Bolden go here would place him at the 4 next to Kyle O’Quinn, with Ben Simmons at the point and Josh Richardson and Matisse Thybulle on the wings. That arrangement actually feels like a group we could see on the court sometime this season during an Embiid/Horford rest game. Conversely, a selection of Milton here would mean a small, but still-realistic lineup of O’Quinn at center, Simmons at point offensively and guarding opposing 4s, and Richardson, Thybulle, and Milton on the wings.

Either way, it’s a tough call as we finalize these rosters before deciding which group would win our Sixers battle royale.

Sixers Red: Joel Embiid, Mike Scott, Zhaire Smith, Raul Neto, Furkan Korkmaz
Sixers White: Ben Simmons, Josh Richardson, Matisse Thybulle, Kyle O’Quinn
Sixers Blue: Tobias Harris, Al Horford, James Ennis, Trey Burke

Who should join Ben Simmons, Josh Richardson, Matisse Thybulle, and Kyle O’Quinn on Sixers White?