76ers' Robert Covington: Expected to begin season as starter

Coach Brett Brown implied Wednesday that Covington would begin the season as the Sixers' starting small forward, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Whether Covington or Dario Saric would get the starting nod was a point of debate throughout the summer, but it appears as though Brown has settled on Covington, who he said he envisions both starting and ending games for the Sixers. Arguably the team's top wing defender, Covington started all 67 games in which he appeared last season, averaging 12.9 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game, while shooting 33.3 percent from beyond the arc. While that was the lowest three-point efficiency of his career, Covington still converted 2.0 threes per game, and his 1.0 blocks per game made him one of the better under-the-radar, overall fantasy performers in the league.