January 05, 2016
A funny thing happened after Jahlil Okafor exited Monday night’s game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Minnesota Timberwolves with 5:13 left in the third quarter: He never saw the floor again.
It wasn’t because Okafor was playing poorly. The rookie center had started to assert himself after the break with six quick points, two of them via an impressive spin move against the man picked two spots ahead of him last June, Karl-Anthony Towns.
Nope, it was just that another rookie big man was playing better.
“If you subbed what was rolling, you just break up something that was staring you in the face,” Brett Brown said. “I think that’s always the challenge of coaching. You had Jahlil over there, but the game didn’t call for him.”
Richaun Holmes, the 37th pick of the 2015 NBA Draft out of Bowling Green (#MACtion), scored 17 points on 7-10 shooting. More importantly, he continued to make the case that he deserves consistent playing time in what has suddenly become a crowded frontcourt.
Holmes’ strong play isn’t exclusive to last night. From a per-minute standpoint, here is where Holmes (380 minutes played) ranks among the 26 rookies that have logged at least 200 minutes (per Basketball Reference):
• Third in win shares per-48 minutes (.184)
• First in true shooting percentage (.640)
• Third in offensive win shares (1.0)
So, pretty good offense. Holmes is far from a finished product, though. When I asked Brett Brown about what I felt was a strong performance from the rookie earlier in the year, he mentioned that Holmes’ defense in the game was subpar. Even though it’s a fairly small sample, the numbers support Brown’s assessment: Of the players still on the roster, the Sixers only play worse defense with Kendall Marshall on the floor. Just last night, Holmes pulled down precisely zero defensive boards in 18 minutes. That’s no good.
But offensively, what stands out most is Holmes’ ability to finish in traffic. Here is how the Sixers’ three young big men shoot from less than five feet, per NBA.com:
| FGM | FGA | FG% | |
| Jahlil Okafor | 151 | 269 | 57.9 |
| Nerlens Noel | 107 | 162 | 66.0 |
| Richaun Holmes | 57 | 75 | 76.0 |
Small sample again, but the trend supports what we’re seeing out on the floor.
While Okafor is more skilled at creating shots, he has more trouble finishing over length. While Nerlens Noel is better at catching alley-oops (an underrated skill, in many ways), Holmes is much stronger finishing in traffic. Think about how many times Noel double clutches or turns the ball over wildly when the paint is clogged.
Holmes, on the other hand, is a decent blend of doing damage both on the ground and in the air. He can even make a play when Ish Smith slips a pass on a side pick-and-roll that the defense is “icing."
“He’s super talented,” Smith said of Holmes. “He’s one of the guys I didn’t know a lot about coming to the team, and from the Utah game, I think I hit Carl [Landry] and was like, ‘He’s really good.’ I didn’t know, but he can do a lot of things on the floor. He’s special.”
Holmes is shooting 20 percent from three and his shot is a knuckleball that Tim Wakefield would be proud of, so that needs monitoring. But even if he never develops a jumper, Holmes already has the ability to catch passes in traffic and finish against contact. As it turns out, that is a valuable skill to have.
“I just try to go up strong because if you don’t go up strong here, you’re getting sent back,” Holmes said. “My goal is to go up strong and put it down before the defender gets to it.”
Holmes is a confident kid that shows a lot of emotion out on the court. This was after a putback dunk in Monday night’s fourth quarter:
“My confidence is always going to be there,” Holmes said.
Maybe the playing time should be, too.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
