NBA Power Rankings: All 30 Starting Shooting Guards

29.  Tony Wroten — Philadelphia 76ers

Sam Hinkie had tough decisions to sift through during June’s NBA Draft.  One of those became figuring out exactly what to do with their No. 3 pick.  It was a weird place to land in the lottery, since Joel Embiid’s foot injury left any team in the third spot a bit hesitant.

Dante Exum — an oversized point guard out of Australia — was supposed to be the answer.  Brett Brown would have a dilemma to deal with, having two guards that love playing the point and can’t shoot a lick from the outside.  Many believed Exum would’ve had to learn how to play the shooting guard spot, if he was drafted.

By choosing the injured Embiid instead, Philadelphia appeared to be content with Tony Wroten.  Wroten is their three-year shooting guard that played his first season with the 76ers last year.  After being a first-round pick in the 2012 draft, he was traded from Memphis to the City of Brotherly Love, and has seen the court longer than he ever dreamed he would in Lionel Hollins‘ offense.

Wroten’s strength is the most underrated aspect of his game, and it’s hard to find a 21-year-old with as much toughness as the youngster.

With the southpaw style of play, Wroten loves to get in the lane with his left hand and create off the dribble.  This came to much surprise, though, since he was 14 percent more effective on drives using in his right hand in college (Washington).  Nonetheless, now he’s become crafty enough to use his speed to make defenses react.

In fact, he reminds me of a poor man’s James Harden when he attacks the cup, using a variety of footwork techniques — including the euro-step — to create space for his attempts:

One discrepancy that’s always been a head-scratcher though, is the amount of teams that use their backcourt as a lights out shooting tandem to put points on the board, or a duo that just specializes in penetration.

Wroten brings the latter, as he’s never been able to stretch his game out from beyond 23 feet (3-point range).  That’s the biggest issue Philadelphia has; not being capable of having a driver with kick-out options along the perimeter.  As the 6’6″ shooting guard, Wroten can’t have a horrific outside side.

In his two years of experience, he’s attempted 204 shots from long distance, connecting on just 44 of them.  21.6 percent isn’t cutting it, and his raw talent is only wasting away by not being a duel weapon in terms of scoring.  It’s always sad to see players have the all the right physical tools, but possess no threat to defenders from beyond the charity stripe.