Sixers head coach Brett Brown has a major decision on his hands upon the arrival of All-Star forward Jimmy Butler, as the mandate to win games and make a push for the top of the East is now more clear than ever before. This change at the small forward position is likely to be met with another, as veteran sniper J.J. Redick could soon rejoin his teammates as a starting shooting guard, putting the days of the Markelle Fultz experiment to an end after 15 games.
Nothing made the move more clear than playing Redick and Fultz together, with the former playing out of position at small forward due to the trade that sent forwards Robert Covington and Dario Saric to Minnesota.
Redick shined with a 25-point performance on 11-of-20 shooting in a Sixers victory over the Miami Heat, bringing the spacing this team so badly needed, which was a obvious distinction from Fultz's five points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field as he still struggles to find his aggression.
ESPN's Tim Bontemps expressed hope for some playing time for Fultz, who will have trouble escaping this free-throw gaffe that has quickly become the equivalent to Charles Barkley's golf swing. Yet the decision to relegate the 20-year-old to the bench won't come without repercussions.
Fultz can perhaps carve out some minutes in the second unit, playing as a backup to Simmons — as he did when he returned late last season after sitting out for all but the opening four games. But doing that will mean Brown has to cut the minutes for T.J. McConnell, who has become a steady hand off the bench for Philadelphia — and helped the Sixers win playoff games last season.
As a longtime fan of Markelle Fultz and a witness to what happened to Nick Anderson, watching Fultz at the free throw line is just heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/CKXyzeqUDL
— David Astramskas (@redapples) November 13, 2018
Yikes!
It's evident the move will need to be made at some point or another, but Brown likely will prefer to use Butler's arrival as a smooth transition into a different starting unit altogether, rather than making the uncomfortable public yank of his young guard.
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