With the 26th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, the Sixers took a flier out on the 6-foot-7 and 190 pound Turkish wing Furkan Korkmaz. Projections were all over the place for Korkmaz in the 2016 draft. Some had him as high as the lottery, but most had him falling in the early-to-mid 20’s. So the Sixers found a good amount of value with Korkmaz late in the first round of the 2016 draft.
It did take a while for Korkmaz to reach the heights of a very valuable contributor as a shooting guard/wing off the Sixers bench. But he’s found his groove to a greater degree over the last year and a half. And he should continue to get put to the test during the Sixers potential playoff run once the NBA takes the indefinite suspension off from the season on July 31.
In the season that is currently placed on pause, Korkmaz played in 64 games (starting in a career-best 12 of them). He averaged 9.7 points per game, 2.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.6 steals. He shot 43.2 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 73.6 percent from the charity stripe, good for an effective field goal percentage of 55.4.
While he is still improving in the advanced metrics department, they were still not great during the 2019-20 campaign. He registered a -1.5 box plus/minus rating, 0.2 value over replacement player rating, .079 win shares per 48 minutes, sky-high 61.7 three-point attempt rate, and a solid 57.1 true shooting percentage.
Korkmaz really is the type of player that is adapting his game fast and has a skill set that is well suited to the modern NBA. The Bulls could really use more wings like him on the current roster.