So last night I was trying to figure out what game to watch on TV, and I obviously went
to watch my native brother Porzingis light it up against the Timberwolves.
At the exact time, there was this game between Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Clippers
and I knew Embiid and Simmons are out with injuries so I figured out it would be a one-sided
affair.
The Clippers did win, but it was so close and so high scoring.
If you didn’t watch the game you probably thought that maybe Tobias Harris went off,
or maybe even Al Horford brought some of that old juice back.
But no.
The dude that was keeping the Sixers in the game was Shake Milton.
If you haven’t heard a lot about this name before, you’re not the only one.
But 39 points.
Geez.
7 of 9 from the three.
That’s some good stuff.
Hey guys.
Purple Prince here, and in the wake of his excellent performance, today I want to look
at Shake Milton and see, who is this dude that suddenly has started to put up those
numbers.
Shake Milton was born September 26th, 1996 in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
During his high school career, Milton played in his high school basketball team and earned
the Gatorade Player of the Year honors for Oklahoma State.
As a senior, he averaged 29.7 points and 4.4 assists and was named Tulsa World Player of
the year and Oklahoma Super 5 player of the year.
He continued his basketball career at SMU in Dallas Texas.
There, in 3 years he averaged 13.4 points and 3.9 assists.
He shot 45.2% from the field and 42.7% from the three.
His most successful season was his last one when he averaged 18 points and connected on
43.4% of his long-distance shots.
After a successful season, the 6 foot 5, 205 pound Milton declared for the 2018 NBA Draft
and was taken late in the second round, with the 54th pick by the Dallas Mavericks, but
almost right away was traded to Philadelphia for two 2nd round picks.
Milton then signed a 2-way contract with the 76ers.
He mostly spent his 2018-19 season in the G League with the Delaware Blue Coats where
he averaged 24.9 points and 5.2 assists on 48.4% shooting.
But he also got some playing time with the 76ers.
In his rookie season, Milton played in 20 games and in 13.4 minutes he averaged 4.4
points and 1.8 rebounds on just 39.1% shooting.
His bad performance continued during the summer as well, where Milton shot just 4 for 29 in
his first two games in Las Vegas before spraining his ankle.
Nevertheless, in July, Milton was resigned, this time to a 4-year contract.
Wait.
How did this all happen?
First of all, we didn’t know something that could have impacted his bad performances.
Way back in the pre-draft process, Milton sustained a stress fracture in his back.
That injury robbed him of some valuable playing time during summer league and his rookie season.
Now.
He feels healthy.
It looks like he’s put in a lot of work during the offseason and he himself felt that
way in October.
“I feel like it’s been a huge jump, personally.
For one, the confidence that I have out there, my body feels good, feel physically ready.
I go out there with confidence, my teammates have confidence in me, the coaches have confidence
in me.
Just going out there and being fearless.”
But then, another Eskimo in the way.
On October 28th Milton went down without any contact holding his knee.
Luckily for him it turned out to be a bone bruise and a mild knee sprain which sidelined
him for only 6 games.
But that was enough to lose his spot in the rotation.
And Brett Brown spoke about his role on the team with him back then.
‘This is your role.’
And my discussion with Shake is, ‘You’re not playing.
You are not in the rotation.
I’m going with Alec [Burks] and [Josh Richardson] and Ben Simmons.
You have to stay ready.
And this is your role, just so that we’re nice and clear.’”
That talk obviously wasn’t easy for Milton.
“It definitely [sucked], Everybody wants to play, everybody wants to be in the rotation
at all times.
Just try to control what I can control, just keep putting in the work.
The opportunity came and presented itself.
I was going to be ready.”
And boy was he ready.
Up until January, he played sparingly, participating in only 12 of the first 45 games.
The most playing time he got was 16 minutes and 51 seconds and his highest-scoring game
featured just 10 points.
But because of all the injuries he had to make his first career start on January 25th.
Since that point, he’s been good.
His first 5 starts alone include 4 double-digit performances and in the third start of his
career, he scored a then career-high 27 points and made 5 threes.
His season has been up and down and that’s ok.
His 4 straight double-digit scoring games were followed by 5 single-digit scoring games
and even a goose egg, albeit in just 42 seconds of playing time, but it seems like he’s
getting into his groove.
For this season, as of now, Milton Shake is averaging 8.8 points in just 17.8 minutes
on 46.6% shooting from the deep.
In the last 3 starts, he has made 16 threes, including 13 consecutive which is a tie for
an NBA record.
And yeah, the first two games of this 3 game stretch came against
Cleveland and New York which isn’t really that impressive.
But tonight.
Against the Clippers.
Supposedly one of the best if not the best perimeter defensive team, Milton just goes
out there, scores 39 points, makes 7 threes.
Yeah, the 76ers still lost, but that is impressive.
He’ll have a good test very soon against the Lakers.
And we probably shouldn’t expect him to explode like that too often, but compared
to what his situation was just at the end of the last year it feels like the little
milkshake is living a dream.
Thanks for watching the video guys.
Did u see his talent before?
Do you think he has another explosion in him, is he here for the long run or will this be
a story of the rise and fall?
Please leave a comment below with your thoughts.
Dont’forget to like this video for the milkshake, share it with others and SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube
channel for more videos.
Thanks.
This was Purple Prince, and I’m out!