Sixers Talk: The Ish Smith Effect

The Sixers began this season miserably. Everyone expected a poor start by the team considering the injuries to the point guards and Robert Covington. Still, not many anticipated a start that was as disastrous as the 1-30 beginning to this 2015-16 season. The record was horrible but somehow it seemed like the team was playing worse than their record. The Sixers looked lost on both offense and defense- more so than at any other part of the rebuild so far. The team’s less than stellar effort on the court and Jahlil Okafor’s problems off it only seemed to exacerbate matters. It was really the first time that the trust the process movement had wavered in its support of the Sixers and their polarizing rebuild. It takes a lot to get some Sixers fans to doubt the process, but the team managed to do it to start this season.

It seemed that as the fans’ doubt began to mount, so did the owners’. The team eventually brought in Jerry Colangelo, a respected person in the world of basketball, to fill a front office position in a role that had many wondering whether it was the end for current general manager Sam Hinkie. Then, in a move that most would describe as very inconsistent with the idea of the process, the Sixers traded two second round picks to the Pelicans in exchange for point guard Ish Smith. Yes, the same Ish Smith who played the second half of last season with the team and then left in free agency. I really was not in favor of the deal. It seemed like a lot to give up in an attempt to regain some of the magic from last year’s team. Ish was good last year and certainly an upgrade over Kendall Marshall and TJ McConnell, but I didn’t think his impact was that great. I was wrong. The Sixers probably still overpaid for Smith but it really doesn’t matter at this point. Without Ish, they were 1-30 this season, but with Smith they are 6-9. That’s a crazy improvement for a team that looked hopeless for the first two months of the season.

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Prior to last night’s victory against the Phoenix Suns, Ish had scored 16 points per contest while averaging over 8 assists. Those are pretty good numbers but it’s less impressive when you consider that Smith isn’t really scoring efficiently as he is only shooting 40 percent from the field despite taking the vast majority of his shots inside the arc. Still, that doesn’t really matter as much as some of the other aspects of his play. For one, Smith is a replacement level point guard which doesn’t sound impressive, but having a league average point guard who can run the offense on this team seriously helps. It’s not always pretty, but the team is at least partially functional on offense and has cut down the turnovers which greatly helps their defense. However, the most important thing that Ish Smith has done is help the young big men. Noel and Okafor have been so much better with Smith. Noel has great chemistry with Ish, who seems to be the one point guard who allows Noel to utilize some of his offensive gifts. Nerlens is scoring more proficiently and efficiently now that Ish is back in the fold. The same goes for Okafor. He is still putting up good offense but he is doing it with better shooting numbers and less turnovers. They are asking Jahlil to create less and it has paid dividends for both his individual efficiency and the team’s offensive success. Ish has just brought a renewed energy to this team. The Sixers are more engaged on both sides of the ball and its showing up in the stats and on the screen.

Maybe this isn’t all Ish. The team was bound to play better. It would have been impossible for them to perform any worse. Some of the improvement is a natural result of being healthier. Other players, like Robert Covington, and the team as a whole were just statistically bound to regress to the mean and play better basketball. Still, I think it would be foolish to dismiss Ish Smith. The team is playing better. They have their energy and swagger back. Lastly, it just looks like they are having fun playing basketball together again. You can call that the Ish Smith Effect.