Sixers Adam Mailbag: The Milton Melton Backcourt and B-Ball Paul

The Sixers season is in full swing, and you’ll never believe it: a bunch of crazy stuff has already happened.

Adam Aaronson, whose legal name is Sixers Adam (@SixersAdam on Twitter), covers the Sixers for The Rights To Ricky Sanchez. He believes cantaloupe is the best food in existence, and is brought to you by the Official Realtor of The Process, Adam Ksebe.

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The Sixers season is in full swing, and you’ll never believe it: a bunch of crazy stuff has already happened. We’ve seen players with high expectations dropping like flies. But then the guys people didn’t necessarily believe in rose to the occasion.

All in all, it’s hard to not be a bit more optimistic now that the Sixers have gotten such tremendous play from guys like Shake Milton, De’Anthony Melton, Georges Niang and Paul Reed. Those four, among others, have helped lift a severely short-handed team over the last couple of weeks.

With that being said, it’s time for our first mailbag of the season. Let’s go:

From @killerbeez_: With the emergence of the Melton/Milton backcourt over the last week, where do you see these two fitting into a fully healthy rotation?

From @frite_truite: When healthy, are there lineups you would like to see that they have not tried yet?

Two questions here with answers that are going to intertwine. In short: I would not be surprised if we see the Sixers embrace small ball more than they already do.

Before the season began, I spent a lot of time talking and writing about the promise of three-guard lineups featuring Melton alongside James Harden and Tyrese Maxey. We only saw a bit of those looks before the two starting guards went down.

With Melton being this team’s best reserve so far this year and Milton playing absolutely tremendous basketball since Maxey’s injury, Doc Rivers will soon have no choice but to use three-guard lineups just to give his best players as much playing time as possible.

Melton is the more natural fit next to Harden and Maxey because of his defensive versatility and lack of ball-dominance. Milton, meanwhile, provides a fascinating wrinkle as someone who can spot up and hit a three, but also create offense on their own as a ball-handler.

Since Harden’s arrival, Rivers has staggered his minutes with Maxey’s to ensure one of them is on the floor at all times. This is the obvious move, it just has never made much sense to rest those two simultaneously given the construct of the team.

But with two high-level guards coming off the bench, could the Sixers opt to run offense through Milton with Melton as a secondary ball-handler from time to time? Not only would this further empower Milton, but it would offer opportunities for Maxey and Harden to each get some time playing away from the ball, which would lessen the burden on their shoulders.

We’ll see how everything looks initially once Harden and Maxey return. But Milton’s recent surge and Melton’s overall production have me believing this team will soon look a lot smaller than it did at the start of training camp.

From @FoParty: Who’s a better basketball player: a BBall Paul sized Shake, or a Shake sized BBall Paul?

Is a BBall Paul sized Shake not just a perennial All-Star? A crafty offensive player who can get to his spots effectively, shoot off the dribble, generate offense for himself and others and knock down spot up for threes… all at 6-foot-9? This sounds like an elite wing creator to me!

Conversely, a Shake sized BBall Paul doesn’t even sound like an NBA player! What on earth would Paul Reed’s role in an offense be if he was just 6-foot-5? 

This one is a no-brainer. And now all I want in the world is to see Milton and Reed have some sort of bizarre swap of bodies so that Shake as a massive wing can be unleashed once and for all.

From @Jason_Timperley: Who are your favorite realistic Sixers trade targets in the sub $14m salary range (e.g. Kork/Matisse/Springer/2nd rounder package)?

It wouldn’t be a mailbag without at least one question about trades, right? 

As the Sixers evaluate options to upgrade their rotation in the coming months, their easiest path to adding to the rotation without losing anybody with a vital role would be to put together a package like the one Jason suggested.

In that salary range, there are a few players I already have an eye on:

The first guy who jumps out is Kelly Oubre Jr. of the Charlotte Hornets. A long wing with massive three-point volume, he seems like Daryl Morey’s type. Charlotte has had the year from hell so far, sitting at just 6-14. Should they decide to move expiring veterans like Oubre Jr., I’d imagine the Sixers will have interest.

The Utah Jazz have had a wonderful start to the season in which they have already surpassed expectations. However, it is still a team beginning a rebuild. If this level of play was to teeter off soon, they would almost certainly be selling. 

The most obvious trade target on their roster is Jordan Clarkson, but the Sixers likely wouldn’t pay the necessary price unless one of Melton or Milton falls off a cliff or suffers a serious injury. 

The Phoenix Suns are hoping to once again reach the NBA Finals, and yet Jae Crowder, a two-year starter on the wing, is still sitting at home as the Suns look to find a trade partner. Crowder’s resume speaks for itself: where he goes, winning often accompanies, and he has an ideal set of skills to play alongside superstars like Joel Embiid and Harden.