Over the next couple of weeks, we will recap the Sixers' season by evaluating each member of the roster.
Today, second-year Sixer and part-time 87er Arnett Moultrie:
Position: Power forward
Status: Signed for 2014-15 for $1.14 million. Team option for 2015-16.
Signature game of 2013-14
The temptation here is to be glib. The temptation is irresistible. Do they have signature games in the D-League? Can you have a signature game while sitting on an NBA bench?
Moultrie played 12 NBA games this year. He started two. They were all equal shades of awful. But, sure, let’s pick a signature game for kicks.
Employing signature to mean "something that serves to set apart or identify," then Moultrie’s signature game came at Oklahoma City on March 4. His line that evening: no points (on two field goal attemps), no rebounds, no assists, no steals, no blocks, no turnovers and no free throw attempts in a little over seven minutes. That was Moultrie in 2013-14: invisible.
Moultrie in 2013-14
In his rookie year, Moultrie averaged 3.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.2 blocks in 11.5 minutes. He appeared in 47 games. It was a terrible season. Then he followed it up with an even worse campaign. This season, Moultrie averaged 3.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.3 blocks. How he managed to do that much is a mystery. Perhaps Matlock is available to crack the case.
In early February, the Sixers sent Moultrie to the D-League. Brett Brown said it wasn’t a demotion, but he also said Moultrie was being re-assigned because he failed to meet the team’s fitness standards. Think about that. Moultrie is a professional basketball player. He gets paid, in part, to run up and down the court a lot. And yet he was so out of shape they bundled him off the minors. Danger. Danger. Danger.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Moultrie was sent to the D-League once again in March. That time, the indictment was even bigger than being out of shape. Brown said the Sixers sent Moultrie to Delaware to “let him play” because he “needs to go play extended minutes.” Once again, think about that. The Sixers won just 19 games this year. They cycled in so many players on 10-day contracts that Sam Hinkie probably doesn’t even remember all of them. (OK, he probably does. But you get the point.) And yet Moultrie couldn’t get extended minutes for that team? Danger. Danger. Danger.
Oh, and he failed his third drug test. Danger. Danger. Da…ah, forget it.
Prospectus
The Sixers have his rights for next year. The Sixers do not want his rights for next year. They didn’t even want his rights for this year. He should get used to Delaware or hope the Sixers just get rid of him, which is likely.
And here’s the fun part, which is really the sad part: The Sixers owe a lottery-protected pick to Boston for Moultrie. If they don’t pay that off next year (that is, if they end up in the lottery next summer), they’ll pay off the Moultrie obligation by sending two second-round picks to the Celtics. That’s two second-round picks more than he’s actually worth.
On Arnett Moultrie…
“It’s not my ankle. It’s not my conditioning. But at this point, I really don’t care. I’m just sick of all the excuses. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another thing. It’s just [baloney].” – Arnett Moultrie on not playing, as reported by the Delco Daily Times on Feb 3, 2014.
“For him to not play for the duration he has, and then just throw him out when it’s not at the career-best fitness that we demand from our program, then we’re not going to do it. It’s really that simple.” – Brett Brown, Feb. 5, 2014.
“Waste.” –Daily News writer Mike Kern, who was present while I wrote portions of this and offered to sum up Moultrie in one word on April 16, 2014.