I’ve said it before it bears repeating. Regardless of who was in charge, this was always going to be the summer where the Sixers turned more aggressive to free agency as a means of team building. Now, with Bryan Colangelo in charge, the Sixers have made some moves that indicate the team’s strategy in free agency. The plan seems to focus on player development over actual improvement. This may seem confusing based on the moves they made, signing three surefire NBA players (Gerald Henderson, Jerryd Bayless and Sergio Rodriguez) to reasonable contracts. Still, these are not the type of players who will drastically improve the team. The Sixers will obviously win more than 10 games this season but I wouldn’t expect them to win close to 40 games either. So if these players will not greatly improve the team record wise, why should fans be excited? Obviously just the fact that the Sixers will be normal levels of bad as opposed to historically bad will be nice. However, I don’t think that’s the best aspect of these moves. I think the most important change comes in on court development.
All of Bayless, Rodriguez and Henderson are flawed players. Bayless isn’t a true point guard and he really struggles on the defensive end. Rodriguez isn’t athletically dynamic and also struggles as a defender. Henderson is an inconsistent jump shooter who cannot really create for himself. These flaws are the reason these players were available and why they don’t make the Sixers into an instant playoff team. But it’s not productive to focus on the weaknesses here. It’s more important to focus on how the strengths of these players and how they interact with young players on the team. These players all have aspects of their games that will help the younger players on the team to develop as well as allowing the front office to more effectively evaluate those players in the context of a real NBA team.
Let’s start with Bayless. He’s a skilled and athletic combo guard who will greatly help the Sixers. The team desperately lacked perimeter scoring and shooting last season. Bayless provides both in bunches. He will provide a lot more space for the offense and will make sure the offense doesn’t stagnate for long periods of time. Space is so essential for players like Jahlil Okafor, Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, and Ben Simmons. All of these will use the space in different ways, but they all need it to be successful. That’s what makes Bayless such a good signing. He will improve the team slightly while putting a number of players in much better position to succeed. That’s pretty darn valuable.
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Rodriguez, like Bayless, provides necessary shooting and only further helps to alleviate the Sixers spacing concerns. That’s not all that Rodriguez provides though. The Spaniard’s best skill is his ability to run a pick and roll to perfection. Rodriguez combines passing, shooting and basketball IQ to devastate opposing defenses. Sixers fans have seen Ish Smith and TJ McConnell have some success in these actions but neither of them come close to Rodriguez here. Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid should thrive setting screens and finishing lobs at the basket with Sergio running the point. The team has lacked a true point guard since Jrue left and Rodriguez should fill that role very well. He provides a stabilizing prescience who can make his teammates better with his shooting and passing skills.
Henderson might actually be the best player out of the three. He’s long and athletic, traits he uses to his advantage on defense. Henderson isn’t a great shooter but he’s passable enough and knows his role. He would instantly provide the team with a nice option on the wing. The only real wing player on the Sixers is Robert Covington so the team definitely needed to add some depth here. Henderson can provide some spacing on offense while lessening the defensive load on the rest of the team. That’s really valuable on a team with so many young players. Nerlens Noel will still likely be the defensive anchor but it will be nice to not ask him to do quite as much. The less rotations Jahlil Okafor has to make, the better. Henderson provides the team some consistency in terms of perimeter defense and the Sixers desperately need that.
You can see the value with all three of these guys. None of them really change the outlook of the team that greatly in terms of winning immediately but all three help to legitimize the team while also developing the young players. General manager Bryan Colangelo deserves credit for that. He was able to do it while not using a lot of long term cap space and got incredibly creative with the Rodriguez signing. He didn’t go for big names or sign unwise contracts with players like Rajon Rondo. I would have loved to see the Sixers sign a young impact player on a longterm deal but that was always going to take a Herculean effort and some luck as well. I’m not sure if this was Bryan Colangelo’s first plan, but regardless of whether it was or not, he executed this one to perfection. The Sixers still have a lot of work and fans will need to be patient, but this was another important step in the right direction for a struggling franchise.
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