Philadelphia 76ers

Smith is the Steady-Ish Hand in the Clutch

Seth Wenig/Associated Press

On Monday afternoon, the Philadelphia 76ers-New York Knicks contest was the earliest game on the schedule among the NBA’s MLK matinees. As a result, a lot of League Pass fans not normally acquainted with watching the team with the worst record in the league, caught Sixers action. What they saw in the eventual double-overtime loss was a whole lot of Ish Smith.

Smith scored 16 points and recorded a career-high 16 assists while going 8-28 from the field and missing his only two attempts from the foul line. That sort of high-volume, low-efficiency scoring is rare in NBA circles, as the list of players who have notched 16 or fewer points in a game while attempting 28 or more field goals goes just five deep. Whether Ish Smith belongs in the group with future Hall-of-Famers Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson or the slightly less prestigious pairing of Antoine Walker and Larry Hughes is a matter of opinion.

What many watching Monday afternoon’s thriller may not realize is that Ish Smith taking a firm grasp of the reins for the Sixers in late-game situations is nothing new. He has a 30.1% usage rate in his 12 games this season with Philadelphia, fairly high but a mark that would only rank among the top-20 in the league (not atypical for a point guard). However, in the 5 games defined as clutch situations by NBA.com (last 5 minutes and the game within 5 points either way), Smith’s usage rate shoots up to 44.1%, a mark that would be behind only LeBron James, James Harden, and Reggie Jackson among those with at least a handful of clutch situations.

Dec. 30, 2015 - Sacramento, CA, USA - The Philadelphia 76ers’ Ish Smith, middle, steals a pass to the Sacramento Kings’ Rajon Rondo (9) in the first half at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015 (Photo by Hector Amezcua/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire)

If you only watched on Monday, you might understandably think that was crazy. There’s no way Smith should be handling the ball as often as one of the greatest players of all time or one of the most efficient scorers in the league right now. Surely, the Sixers could find more efficient ways to work their offense down the stretch of games? Ah, but you don’t quite realize what a refreshing change the Ish Smith takeover has been for the 76ers’ late-game prospects.

The Sixers dropping five straight in late November after leading in the fourth quarter was the final straw on the NBA’s proverbial back; not long after, Adam Silver was initiating talks between Josh Harris and Jerry Colangelo and the Process as we knew it was dead. Through a combination of simple regression to the mean and Smith’s arrival, the Sixers have been much better in late-game situations since then. Smith’s offensive rating of 94.5 is easily the best on the team among players who have seen more than one clutch situation, and well above Philadelphia’s league-worst 74.7 team offensive rating in the clutch this season. Smith’s mark would still be about 3rd-worst among NBA teams, but in Philadelphia, these days, you grade things on a curve, and 3rd-worst in the league deserves an A+.

It’s not that Smith has significantly elevated his game late, either. He simply remains who is he. In the clutch, Smith has a true shooting percentage of 45.8%, and an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.5, slightly better, but not too far removed, from his numbers as a whole in Philadelphia of 44.9% and 2.83. Simply maintaining consistent play is a far cry better than the rest of the Sixers guards, who had collapsed into an Alex Mack-style puddle of goo when the going got tough this season. Would you believe that no one else on the team has an assist-to-turnover ratio better than 1.0 in the clutch? Or that T.J. McConnell has a 30.0% turnover ratio across 12 such games?

Until the Sixers find a better alternative (hopefully in the 2016 NBA draft), Ish Smith’s brand of slightly inefficient basketball in the clutch not only makes for exciting League Pass viewing but represents Philadelphia’s best option for success in the short term. When the Sixers are trying to drive home with a win, to paraphrase Carrie Underwood, “Ish, take the wheel”.

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