Philadelphia 76ers: 5 goals for Robert Covington in 2017-18

4. Improve perimeter shooting

While Covington’s defensive game has grown leaps and bounds, his consistency as a perimeter shooter still leaves a lot to be desired.

For the third straight season, Covington failed to break the 40 percent shooting barrier from the field, shooting at a 39.9 percent clip. Overall, Covington’s highest volume shot from the field was easily the 3-point shot, making up 56.3 percent of his total field goal attempts.

Covington led Philadelphia in 3-point attempts last season, attempting 6.1 per game while connecting at a 33.3 percent clip. Unfortunately for Covington and the Sixers, this represented the third consecutive season in which his 3-point accuracy has taken a hit.

The 2014-15 season saw Covington shoot at a 37.4 percent clip, while 2015-16 returned a 35.3 percent shooting clip. While this gradual decline is clearly a concern, Covington did start to amend this as the past season developed.

Over his first 30 games of last season, Covington shot at a miserable 27.8 percent clip from long range. But over his final 37 games, this number rose to a 37.5 percent clip.

Therefore, one of the keys for Covington moving forward will be in reducing the difference between his best and worst outings from the perimeter. Last season, Covington hit four or more 3-pointers on 10 occasions, including a season-high six against the Toronto Raptors.

On the other hand, he also had 11 games in which he failed to connect on a 3-pointer, from a total of 48 attempts. Notably, the Sixers posted a 3-8 record over these games.