At times this season, Daryl Morey and Doc Rivers have intimated that they didn’t get enough credit for bringing in Georges Niang. I’d argue that most fans and media did applaud the move, but that it didn’t get a ton of publicity 1) because Niang was coming in as a bench guy and 2) because the Ben Simmons bullshit overshadowed everything that took place in the summer.
Regardless, the move has been a great one for the Sixers. Two years, $6.3 million for a guy who is playing the best basketball of his career right now.
Niang went for 14 and 7 in a road win over the stinky Pistons on Thursday night. Detroit is “turrible,” as Charles Barkley would say, but the Sixers had multiple starters missing and were on the second night of a back-to-back, so you have to give credit where it’s due. That’s a game in the past where Joel Embiid would have sat and the Sixers would have found a way to lose.
The best part about Niang’s game is that he’s become a three-point chucker in the NBA. His experience playing for an analytically-sound Jazz team is paying dividends this year as he fills a role the Sixers just didn’t have last year, which is stretch four coming off the bench.
It’s not surprising that his seasonal shot chart looks like this:
That’s a work of art. The data guys will love that he’s shot 70% of his field goals from three and hasn’t taken a single long two at all. Not one! Everything has either been from behind the arc or in that paint/foul line/base line area. He’s shooting 41.8% from three this year and is third on the team in 3P%, behind only Seth Curry and Danny Green.
That 41.8% is not a career-best, though it’s very close. Niang shot 42.5% last season but took two fewer attempts and played six fewer minutes on average. His volume is up across the board this year because he’s playing a more significant role and seeing more of the ball, as you can see in this table here:
A couple of other things to note about Niang’s play this year:
It’s early, and the Sixers have some guys banged up and unavailable, which elevates his usage, but Niang has proven to be a great signing so far. Even the GOAT Jim Gardner recognizes it: