When Furkan Korkmaz was a rookie, Brett Brown thought the 20-year-old Turkish shooter had an “interesting” body type. He described him as a “bouncy” kind of player, akin to Brent Barry, who played for the Spurs during the tail-end of his career.

“He can score,” said Brown of Korkmaz back in 2017. He’s got a real sort of interesting body for a basketball player in his position. He’s long and he’s lanky. Years ago I coached Brent Barry, (who had) sort of that bouncy, pogo stick, can shoot, can dunk (body type). I see that Furkan has got some real interesting qualities.”

Fast forward a few years and those “interesting qualities” are manifesting in a big way. Manifesting in career highs in the following categories:

  • 22.4 minutes per game
  • 12.4 points per game
  • 48.8 field goal percentage
  • 42.6% from three
  • .613 effective field goal percentage
  • 93.3% from the foul line
  • 2.8 assists per game

And he’s committing a career-low in fouls, too. Korkmaz, who was defensively raw in year #1, has developed nicely on that end of the floor while growing into his 6’7″ frame. In addition to “growing a bomber,” as Brown once said, Doc Rivers has Korkmaz playing better in a two-way fashion.

Furkan scored a season-high 25 points in Saturday night’s road win, boosting the Sixers to 8-2 on the season. He’s doing a lot of the same things you’re seeing from guys like Georges Niang and Danny Green, which is adhering to the analytics in firing three pointers or getting to the rim. There is very little midrange stuff in his seasonal shot plot:

He’s below league average from the corners and straight-on, but he’s finishing at the rim and is +10 percentage points higher near the break lines. Those wing spots are his catch-and-shoot bread and butter, with that fundamentally sound and smooth release.

There’s good variety, too. When he went on that individual run in New Orleans, Furkan was getting his looks in different ways:

It’s kind of crazy to go back and look at Korkmaz’s career and think about how he got here. He suffered the Lisfranc injury back in 2017 when playing for the Blue Coats. Then his rookie option was declined and he found his way back to the Sixers, only to tear his meniscus. He became a free agent again, was linked to Fenerbahce, but once again signed a new Philadelphia deal, and is now a regular contributor on an affordable contract. (edit – I forgot to mention that he also asked for a trade at one point)

We know it’s early, and if you wanna crown Furkan, then crown his ass. Inevitably we’ll be back to talking about Negadelphia Sixer topics at some point, so let’s keep it positive right now. Credit where it’s due – Korkmaz is playing some great basketball right now and the team is fun to watch.

You cannot stop Furkan Korkmaz, you can only hope to contain him.