I’ve never really thought of J.J. Redick as an assist-prone player; in his past two seasons, he only had two games at or above the five-assist mark. That wasn’t a problem for me because his shooting skill is so great that there shouldn’t be any reason for him to pass; most possessions where he ends up with the ball, the ball is there because he’s supposed to shoot it.
However, with the Sixers, he’s had thirteen such games, this one among them. I don’t know if the presence of Ben Simmons makes everybody start thinking “hey, if he can rack up assists from an unconventional position, perhaps I can do the same thing”, but something’s changed for Redick, and he’s become a decent ball distributor in addition to his known-lethal shooting. Maybe this is all a ploy to snag another huge contract after his one-year, 23-million dollar deal with the Sixers comes to an end. That way some team can pay him eighteen million dollars when he’s 38 years old and has finally started to decline.