NBA Philadelphia 76ers

Robert Covington is a Key Cog in Making Philadelphia 76ers Competitive Sooner Than Expected

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By @papreps

robert covington, philadelphia 76ers,

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

When a team is trying to rebuild, there is not much to accomplish other than tanking for better picks and identifying who to keep and who to ditch.

On the way to tanking, though, the 2-21 Philadelphia 76ers are finding surprising keepers and one of them is 6-foot-8 forward Robert Covington, who added an impressive 24-point effort in a well-contested 120-115 overtime loss to the 19-4 visiting Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday night.

Covington was picked up by the Sixers after being the MVP of the Developmental League, yet he brings a lot of keeper qualities to the table. The Sixers know they want to keep first-round picks Nerlens Noel, Joel Embiid and Michael Carter-Williams, but everybody else is lumped into one group yet to be evaluated.

It didn’t take long for Covington to separate himself from the rest the pack, though. He’s a keeper as well and his 16.9 points per game average is evidence enough, but he also brings to the table an ability to rebound and shoot the three-pointer. Plus, he’s 33-for-35 from the free-throw line this season, including Saturday night, when he finished 10-for-11.

The Sixers were leading, 95-77, with 7:20 to go in the fourth quarter against the team with the second-best record in the NBA. That is not a typo, so maybe they are not that far away.

If the Sixers are going to jump from awful to competitive, they are going to need guys like Covington to jump-start the process because they know what they have in their first-round picks and Dario Saric, the 6-foot-10 forward who just might be the best player in Europe right now. Saric will not join the team for two years, so if Covington emerges as a real option as a No. 4 (power forward) type, the team can move one of the two 7-footers for other needed assets.

Either way, Covington is a nice surprise and gives the team more options than they already had and a path to become competitive sooner than expected.

Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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