Furkan Korkmaz started off red-hot this season for the Sixers. Since then, he’s been as cold as ice. How long can the Sixers last before making a change?
His three-year $15 million contract looked like a very team-friendly deal through the first 10 games. Since then, Korkmaz has looked abysmal over the last 15 games. He is shooting 27.7 percent from the field and under 20 percent from beyond the arc since November 9th.
Joel Embiid has missed a chunk of those games during Korkmaz’s poor stretch. Embiid has played seven out of the 15 games during Korkmaz’s slump. The Turkish wing is shooting 11-35 from the field in those seven games, which is just over 30 percent from the field.
With or without Embiid, that shouldn’t matter with that poor of shooting to stay in the rotation. The Philadelphia 76ers have a viable option to take some minutes away from Korkmaz on its bench. Second-year wing Isaiah Joe can spread the floor and can defend better than Korkmaz already.
Joe showed growth this summer in Las Vegas and continued to improve during the preseason. He led the team in scoring, averaging early 17 points per game.
Now, of course, it’s preseason numbers; they do not matter much. Isaiah Joe will most likely never shoot the basketball at the efficiency ever in his career because no one has ever averaged all three shooting splits at that rate in NBA history.
In the second half of Thursday night’s game, Isaiah Joe came off the bench before Korkmaz. Joe finished with seven minutes and missed his only shot attempt. Joe should continue to see more minutes in the rotation as the two battle out a spot in the rotation.
