The Sixers Are Good When Furkan Korkmaz Is Good
When Furk is going good -- and I really mean the second that Furk starts to go good -- the swagger starts to fly from his fingertips like Raiden shooting lightning bolts in Mortal Kombat.
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Seven wins in a row can change a lot about a team's outlook -- and even more about their fanbase's. Few weeks ago, the Sixers were a miserable slog, a 16-16 team that inspired more Twitter bellyaching than the squads from years when the Sixers were lucky to notch 16 wins over a whole season. The team's second-best player was nowhere to be found for going on the third month in a row, and he wasn't even the guy whose contract most Process Truster were maddest about. Now? The team is 23-16, again routinely ripping through unworthy opponents, a game out of home court advantage in the East and just a couple games beyond that away from the two seed. They're fun to watch, fun to dream big-picture about, and fun to refresh Basketball-Reference stat pages for again. The vibes are so good Dwight Howard may spontaneously materialize from the next pre-home game huddle to get the crowd hyped.
And the main reason for the transformation? You already know his name: Furkan Korkmaz.
What about Joel Embiid, you may ask? Oh, you mean the guy who's scored 30 points in a career-high seven straight games -- and got 31 in less than three quarters last night, while helping widen the team's lead by enough to help ensure he wouldn't have to return for more in the fourth? The guy who's responded to his team's point guard vacuum by posting career best assist and turnover rates and might be just a few games from leading the team outright in the former category as a seven-foot center? The guy who is setting a new Sixers "First Since" or "Most Since" mark with names like Iverson, Barkley and/or Chamberlain basically after every game? The guy who has unquestionably taken his game to a new level after finishing second in the MVP voting last year? Yeah, he's helping too.
But over the season -- maybe over his career -- the Sixers have simply gone as Furkan has gone. They are 9-1 in games when he scores more than ten points, 12-13 in games when he has 10 or fewer. Unsurprisingly, this seven-game win streak has coincided directly with Furk snapping out of his prior month-and-a-half-long cold streak: He scored 14 (5-9 shooting) on Dec. 26th in Washington -- most for him in a game since his 19 against the Knicks on Nov. 8th -- and the Sixers won by 20 after losing four of their previous five. Over the seven game win streak, he's averaged 12.4 points on 44% shooting (35% from three) with over twice as many assists as turnovers; not numbers anyone's gonna be confusing with JoJo's anytime soon, but certainly rotation-worthy numbers, and basically Durant-esque compared to his prior 18 games (5.7 PPG on 30% FG with 18% 3PT).
And just look at his win/loss season splits: In 21 Sixers wins this season, he's averaging 10.4 PPG, shooting 45% from the field and 38% from three; basically, the numbers about where you'd hope Furkan would be for the whole season. But in 14 Sixers losses, he's down to 7.3 PPG, shooting 29% from the field and a ghastly 21% from three, numbers that would make him unplayable in just about any circumstance. (Last season wasn't much better: 42% from three in wins and 24% in losses.) Not like Kork is the only guy who tends to play better in wins than losses -- most guys do, for fairly obvious reasons -- but most of them don't see their defining statistical contribution basically cut in half by the split. It's pretty extreme, but not any more than it's actually felt while watching the difference between Good Furk and Bad Furk on the 76ers the past couple seasons.
Plus, with Furkan, it's always about more than just the numbers. When Furk is going good -- and I really mean the second that Furk starts to go good -- the swagger starts to fly from his fingertips like Raiden shooting lightning bolts in Mortal Kombat. Within a couple possessions, he's taking heat checks that would make J.R. Smith squirmy and dishing dimes like a dunk contest-winning Ricky Rubio. The entire team seems to feel it, and the entire team gets that much more Cassell-ian as a result. Conversely, when Furk is going bad, tossing up clunkers that thud like he's trying to play beer pong with a bowling ball -- and eventually passing up shots altogether -- you can feel the nut shriveling all across the Sixers' perimeter attack, a crew not exactly known for their fearlessness in the first place. Joel is Joel; his cockiness is too obviously earned at this point to really be that infectious. It's only Furkan who can inspire the rest of the mortal Sixers to embrace their inner cockboy.
Well, maybe not only Furkan, at least not this season. He's got a partner in insta chest-puffery this season in Georges Niang, another guy who hits one shot in an away game and immediately thinks he's 1995 Reggie Miller in an arena full of Spike Lees. Niang seems to always be talking shit to someone -- possibly just himself a lot of the time -- and is second only to Joel on the team in hamming and heeling it up for the crowd. Still, while his blood may run even hotter than Furkan's, his streakiness does not; he's also shooting about 10% better from three in wins than losses, but otherwise his numbers are much more similar, and he's never had a cold stretch this season nearly as frosty for nearly as long as Furkan's Cruel Winter.
No, it is Furkan and Furkan alone who is the bellwether for this team. If he hits two threes and seems intent on putting up a third the second he crosses half-court, you know it's probably gonna be a special night from the Liberty Ballers. If he continues making the extra pass when the Sixers are already at least one pass over the legal limit, you know it's probably time to turn off the game and maybe your phone too. Maybe a run of games with him playing like the latter is around the corner, maybe as soon as Shake Milton and/or Tyrese Maxey return to the lineup to deprive him of the secondary handling responsibilities that seem to get his juices flowing. But for now, we gotta keep Furk in Vader Mode to have any chance of this winning streak lasting into the double digits. Joel Embiid is our MVP this year -- perhaps the entire league's before all is said and done -- but Kork is undoubtedly our MNP, the guy who we most Need to be sweet and fresh and piping hot every night, lest we end up closing our third straight season with sour vibes.