Sixers mailbag: Tackling Ben Simmons’ back injury, Jahlil Okafor and Markelle Fultz’s struggles in Philly and Shake Milton’s emergence

This is the 11th edition of the weekly 76ers mailbag.

Each week, Inquirer.com followers may submit questions to be answered every Friday.

Missed out on the party this week? No worries. You can submit your question(s) for next time by following me on Twitter @PompeyOnSixers and tweeting your inquiry with the hashtag #PompeysMailbagFlow.

Let’s jump right into this week’s questions:

Answer: Thanks for the question, Mike. And thanks for getting this newsletter started. I hope you and your family are doing well.

I think part of the reason we haven’t heard any updates from the team is due to the suspension of all basketball activities during the coronavirus pandemic. But I doubt that they would have gone into a lot of details aside from confirming that he was reevaluated and the stage of his recovery.

Of course, they are only referring to his back injury as a nerve impingement, which is a pinched nerve. It sounds like he may have some chronic degenerative issues, and he’s dealing with the expected symptoms. That wouldn’t be uncommon for someone of his stature.

In regards to the team’s vagueness surrounding Simmons’ injury, one has to assume that it’s being directed by people in his agency. Perhaps they want to publicly minimize the injury to prevent people from saying, down the line, that he has a bad back.

So why not just term it a nerve impingement or pinched nerve? Once he gets over that symptom and returns to the court, all will be forgotten, as opposed to saying Simmons has an actual condition.

A: Thanks for the question, John. It turns out, they were both drafted into bad situations.

In Okafor’s case, the Sixers were the wrong team based on both his position and the team’s culture. Everything was out of control in his first season, including off-the-court altercations and a speeding ticket. On a team loaded with young guys, the center didn’t have the veteran teammate who might have steered him to make wiser choices. Basketball-wise, it didn’t make a lot of sense to draft him. At the time, the team already had two starting-caliber centers in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid.

By his third season, the Sixers decided that Okafor, the third overall pick in the 2015 draft, wasn’t even a rotation player. And that’s sad considering Noel was no longer around after being traded to the Dallas Mavericks. Okafor, who was traded to the Brooklyn Nets during that third season, probably would be enjoying a solid career had the Sixers not drafted him. Okafor would have fit in well with a team that would have paired him with a bruising power forward. And he would have learned how to become a professional by being on a veteran team.

Meanwhile, Fultz was the perfect fit to play alongside Simmons on paper. That’s why the Sixers traded up two spots in the 2017 draft to select the point guard first overall. He made 41.3% of his shots from the college three-point line during his lone season at Washington. Finding a shooter with his three-point skill and the ability to play off the ball was a priority for the Sixers.

The most complete player in the draft, Fultz is also the best option to pair to Simmons and Embiid.

Here’s the problem: He was the third option behind those two. That’s tough for a first-overall draft pick. Simmons had the ball and Fultz was relegated to being in the corner. That would take a mental toll on anyone that was projected to be a franchise player. Now, of course, his agent kept saying Fultz was dealing with physical issues. But like Okafor, he needed a fresh start. Think about it: Fultz and Simmons, who sat out his rookie season, were both first-overall pick point guards, trying to establish themselves. They both wanted that season’s rookie of the year title. While Simmons had the ball, Fultz was a third option. It was doomed to fail just because this wasn’t a normal first-overall pick situation for him.

A: What’s up, Kerry? It’s kind of funny that you asked about a good book to read. I had to come up with a couple of good ones for a project that I’m working on. The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams by Darcy Frey is one of my favorite sports books.

Don’t laugh, but I actually read this entire book on Valentine’s Day back in the mid-1990s as an intern for The Virginian-Pilot. Yes, the book was that good. And yes, my dating life might have been that boring at the time. However, I couldn’t put this book down on that particular off day. I learned a lot about the basketball scene in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. It was much more than a game. It represented one of the only ways to avoid a life of poverty for many young guys. These families had a lot going against them, including insufficient​ schooling that failed to prepare many for college. This book also introduced me to Stephon Marbury, who at an early age was identified as the Chosen One of Coney Island hoops. But one of the most eye-opening things about this book was that it exposed the slick world of college recruiting. ​

A: Thanks for the comment, Sean. I must say that I agree with you. I think Milton is currently doing all of the things the Sixers envisioned Fultz doing playing alongside Simmons. Milton’s presence enabled Simmons to play more of a point-forward role.

In the scenario, Simmons would handle the ball in the high post. We’ve been saying for a while that the Sixers need a point guard who can stretch the floor. They have that in Milton. The second-year player is not afraid of the spotlight or intimidated by playing against All-Star-caliber opponents.

The crazy thing is, if not for injuries, Milton would have been nothing more than a towel-waving cheerleader after the All-Star break.

Sixers coach Brett Brown acknowledged after the March 1 game against the Los Angeles Clippers that Milton wasn’t part of the team’s plans. It was a game in which the former two-way player scored a career-high 39 points and tied the NBA record for the most consecutive made three-pointers, with 13 over three games. Milton made 7 of 9 threes that day, including his first five, and had five assists.

So, yes, he definitely emerged as a valuable player for the Sixers.