Tony Wroten. Isaiah Canaan. Pierre Jackson. Scottie Wilbekin. T.J. McConnell. The Philadephia 76ers have plenty of options at point guard, but nobody that makes you think, “that guy is perfect to feed Jahlil Okafor/Nerlens Noel/Nik Stauskas the rock.”
Enter Kendall Marshall. The pass-first point guard has officially been signed by the Sixers, the team announced. He will make a fully guaranteed $2.1 million this season, and then there are three non-guaranteed seasons after that, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Marshall is an old-school point guard who has fantastic court vision and knows how to feed guys the ball. But he’s been with three teams in three years, playing a limited role everywhere, because of everything else. He’s coming off an ACL injury and will miss the first part of the season. His defense is not good. He’s not terribly athletic. He’s not a good shooter (although he did improve and hit 39.1 from three last season — he needs to sustain that). There are plenty of questions.
That said, it’s not a bad gamble for a Sixers team that is rebuilding and has arguably the worst point guard lineup in the NBA. This signing doesn’t change that, but it’s a reasonable roll of the dice, Marshall’s high IQ style may be a good fit (ultimately likely as a reserve, but a good fit).
