Sixers player evaluation: Byron Mullens

Share

Over the next couple of weeks, we will recap the Sixers' season by evaluating each member of the roster.

Today, veteran gunner Byron Mullens:

Position
Center/Power forward

Status
Mullens has a player option with an early termination clause for $1.063 million for 2014-15.

Signature game of 2013-14
Mullens had three games in which he scored 15 points for the Sixers after coming over from the Clippers at the trade deadline. In each of those games, Mullens hit three three-pointers. However, in the loss to the Indiana Pacers at the Wells Fargo Center, Mullens shot 6 for 9 with five rebounds and two steals in 24 minutes. Mullens scored 12 of his 15 during the second quarter to help keep the Sixers within two points.

Mullens in 2013-14
Mullens went from one of the best teams in the Western Conference to the worst team in the NBA. Unlike Danny Granger, who was traded from the Pacers to the Sixers, Mullens couldn’t force a buy out. That’s partially because Mullens has a player option for next season and isn’t working for a free-agent contract. Plus, Mullens has been on really bad teams before. In 2011-12, he was on the Bobcats when they went 7-59, so the 19-63 Sixers were a walk in the park.

Also, in 27 games with the Clippers, Mullens averaged just 6.2 minutes per game. That climbed to 13.7 minutes with the Sixers while his shot attempts nearly tripled.

Prospectus
Mullens likes to shoot the ball. Though he’s seven-feet tall, he’s not much for hanging around the paint -- he’d much prefer to hover around the three-point line looking for a shot. And Mullens won’t hesitate to let it go. ESPN.com basketball writer Zach Lowe opined that Mullens plays basketball as if it were a game of pop-a-shot. Oddly, Mullens is more productive the farther he is from the basket.

It would be difficult to envision a scenario in which Mullens opts out of his deal. There doesn’t seem to be much of a market for seven-footers who shoot it from 25 feet. So count on Mullens picking up his option and showing up at training camp in October.

On Byron Mullens
“You see a 7-foot guy who can step out and stretch the floor, and he is athletic. He can get up and down the floor, and I feel like he’s a good person, he’s coachable, there’s a part of those inherent qualities that he possesses that interest me.” 

— Brett Brown, April 5, 2014

Contact Us