Philadelphia 76ers: 5 takeaways from 2017-18 NBA season
By Simon Smith
5. The small forward position is a question mark
Just one month into the 2017-18 season, the Sixers wasted no time in signing forward Robert Covington to a four-year, $62 million contract extension. Having arrived in Philadelphia as an undrafted rookie and with a handful of games under his belt with the Houston Rockets, Covington was one of the true success stories of the Sam Hinkie era.
Hinkie, the former Sixers’ president of basketball operations, took as flier on a number of players such as Covington while in charge of a franchise doing everything possible to underperform in order to jump into the draft lottery on multiple occasions.
To commence the season, Covington demonstrated just why the Sixers signed him to such generous extension, averaging 16.7 points, 5.7 points and 1.5 steals over the first 15 games, while completing the outstanding shooting splits of .494/.487/.813. Considering he was launching 7.5 attempts per game from 3-point range, Covington’s ability as a genuine 3-and-D standout was seen as a perfect complement among the surrounding talent on the Sixers’ roster.
Robert Covington needs to be better. He's been a star one night, then a dud the next—not just this series but his entire career. We've especially seen that this series with goose eggs in Games 1 & 3 (a combined 0-for-14 for 4 points) contrasted by 22 points on 15 shots in Game 2.
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) May 6, 2018
As the season progressed, these numbers instead appeared to be an outlier. Over his remaining 65 games of the regular season, Covington averaged 11.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game. His shooting numbers plummeted during this span, hitting at a 39.2 percent clip from the field, and just 33.9 percent from long range.
While this represented a big hit from his early production, the postseason drop-off was even more dramatic.
Over his 10 playoff appearances, Covington averaged just 8.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 28.1 minutes per game, featuring a 32.5 percent shooting from the field and 31.3 percent shooting from downtown. To signify just how far he’d fallen, career backup T.J. McConnell replaced Covington in final three games of the Sixers’ second round series with the Boston Celtics.
You are going to need Robert Covington, playing at a high level, if you expect to come back and win these next three games. Keep starting TJ for his defense on Rozier, but the Sixers play their best when Covington's on his game. Can't bury him. https://t.co/d2lzwVAPAa
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 8, 2018
Granted, Covington ranked 12th in the league for steals during the regular season, while leading the league in deflections at 3.9 per game. However, as a career 39.9 percent shooter from the field, Covington’s long-term future with the Sixers has to be under somewhat of a cloud considering his significant struggles come the business end of the season.
At season ending exit interview, Covington outlined the areas in which he feels he needs to improve moving forward:
"“This summer, I’ll be focussing a lot on ball handling, quickness, explosion, finishing at the rim, a lot of different things.”"
With a bucket load of cap space, and some important decisions to be made on key rotation pieces, it will be a watch this space this summer as it pertains to Covington and his place on the Sixers’ roster moving forward — especially with free agent names like LeBron James, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard (or even draft names like Mikal Bridges) dancing around.