Going into Thursday night’s NBA Draft, the Sixers’ timeline was pretty clear.

They’re in win-now mode, made necessary by the shrinking window of prime Joel Embiid and the quickly-aging James Harden.

From a salary cap and developmental standpoint, waiving Danny Green’s non-guaranteed $10 million and standing pat with pick #23 would have made a lot of sense, but they simply did not have the luxury of throwing darts and hoping to hit on the next Tyrese Maxey. And even if they did, there was no guarantee that player would be a significant piece THIS YEAR, since most players taken in the 20-30 range need at the very least a year or two to develop.

So Daryl Morey did what he had to do, and he moved #23 with Green for a player that can contribute right away. If you’re asking yourself who helps the most, right now, out of a bottom-half first round rookie, 35 year old Green coming off a knee injury, or De’Anthony Melton, the answer is Melton.

Melton just turned 24 and has been a bench player for most of his four-year NBA career, three of which were spent in Memphis. He’s only 6’2″ and 200 pounds, so he’s not a big guy, but he’s a good athlete and gives effort on the defensive side. This can be a nice combo guard complement for James Harden assuming he’s out there running the second unit and Tyrese Maxey is on the bench (or vice versa, if there’s some admittedly-unlikely scenario where Melton starts and Maxey comes off the bench). They need some more grit on the perimeter and Melton coming here after absorbing that Memphis culture means he’s likely to be received well by the portion of Philadelphia fans who appreciate hustle on both ends of the floor.

He’ll get you ten points a night, grab a few rebounds, and toss a few assists. He has excellent block % and steal % numbers and will get his hands into passing lanes and pester opposing guards on-ball. He is not an amazing scorer, but if you’re looking for something to really sink into, note that his three-point percentage has improved steadily since he started his NBA career at age 20:

  • 2018-19 (Phoenix) – 30.5% on 1.9 attempts per game
  • 2019-20 (Memphis) – 28.6% on 2.3 attempts per game
  • 2020-21 (Memphis) – 41.2% on 4.1 attempts per game
  • 2021-22 (Memphis) – 37.4% on 5.1 attempts per game

That gets you to a career of 36.1% on 3.5 attempts per game, but it’s ~39% on 4.5 attempts over the past two seasons, which is something you can really work with.

That manifests in a shot plot looking like this:

You see he’s not an incredible finisher at the rim, or in the mid-range, but that’s alright, because those are relatively lower volume areas for him. The real promise is those excellent corner three numbers, plus that 48.6% he shot from the right side near the break line. If you get some defensive effort, some transition points, and catch-and-shoot threes out of Melton, that’s really all you need.

According to the NBA’s tracking data, Melton shot 40.6% on catch-and-shoot three pointers this past season. That’s fantastic. And those were the large majority of his efforts from deep. The data shows 261 C&S three-point attempts and 101 pull-up threes, shooting 30.7% on the latter, so you want him catching and firing at will, like this:

There’s a lot to like about his game, you just have to keep things in perspective. The Sixers aren’t getting the second-coming of D Wade here, nor are they getting instant offense. You’re getting some versatility on the perimeter, and when you look at last year’s bench, you had a crop of slow guys who didn’t have much dynamism to their games. Georges Niang did some really nice things in the regular season before falling apart in the playoffs while dealing with the injury. Furkan Korkmaz was up and down. Shake Milton had some good games and some meh games. The Sixers are hoping they’ve added consistency and more athleticism by bringing Melton in, and on paper, there’s little to dislike about the move. His playoff numbers aren’t as good as his regular season numbers, and he’s not the big, athletic wing this team really truly needs, but he’s on an affordable contract ($8 million, similar to the Seth Curry deal) and he’s still got a lot of good NBA basketball in him.