These were new heights for Sixers point guard Jeff Dowtin Jr. Seldom a factor this season, he found himself stepping up onto a riser after Friday’s loss to Indiana, then taking a seat behind a table and fielding questions from reporters.
That’s right — it was a Dowtin Podium Game.
That might appear laughable and pitiful, except for the fact that Dowtin has been a case study in doggedness over the course of an itinerant NBA career now in its fourth year. Assured of nothing, he has clung to anything — any two-way contract, any summer-league spot, any smidgen of playing time — while bouncing from one organization to the next. The Sixers are the fifth to employ him.
At 27, he is not a kid anymore. He is, in fact, older than most of the guys who have suited up for the Sixers this season. Yet he continues to believe he can find steady work in the NBA, that one of the league’s 450 jobs can be his for longer than an eyeblink.
And that seems far from laughable, far from pitiful.
Certainly the Sixers’ many injuries this season have afforded him as great an opportunity as any. They were down to eight available bodies against the Pacers, and Dowtin, making the first start of his 80-game-old NBA career, led his team with 24 points. That eclipsed by four his one-game-old career high of 20, established Wednesday against Toronto. The game before that, he scored 17 against Atlanta, his fourth-highest total.
“I have the utmost confidence in myself,” he said.
He puts in the work, puts in the time. He also leaves little to chance.
“I tell people all the time I have the same (pregame) shooting routine,” he said. “I eat the same meal before the game every day. Same stretch routine.”
Hold up — the same meal?
Correct.
“Like a spicy rigatoni pasta, chicken and shrimp,” he reported.
Before the game Dowtin, who at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds needs all the calories he can get, sat before his cubicle in the home locker room, eating that very dish out of a plastic container. He was asked if the team’s struggles were not a blessing in disguise for him, in that he has been afforded a longer look than otherwise might have been possible.
“I just look at it as another opportunity,” he said. “Coach (Nick Nurse) calls my name, I’m prepared. I’m ready. … I put in the work throughout the year. Just always be ready, whenever your name is called and just being able to showcase my talents, showcase my abilities, what I’m known to do. So just stay at that.”
And in the process, he said hours later, “let the coaching staff see what I can do on the court and that I can translate to more minutes, more points, more opportunity.”
When the Sixers were amid The Process years ago, a young guard named Larry Drew II passed through town. He was asked about the striving of fringe guys like himself then and Dowtin now — guys who found themselves in the G-League, who were desperately clinging to their NBA dreams. Such players, Drew said, are like “crabs in a bucket,” forever trying to skitter over one another.
Dowtin, who has in fact spent his share of time in the minors, did not disagree.
“It’s a lot of hungry individuals in the G-League that feel as though they should be part of the NBA, myself included,” he said. “It was just a lot of hungry individuals, a lot of guys that are just going to grind it out, play aggressive, fight for what they want.”
As a result, he added, he has always been willing to “just continue to push, continue to fight, be grateful with the chances that I get.”
Dowtin was a rare four-year collegiate player at Rhode Island, but went undrafted in 2020. He did in fact begin his pro career in the G-League, with the Lakeland Magic in January 2021. Wound up playing for a championship team, which earned him an invitation to Orlando’s training camp the following fall.
He didn’t stick, and went on to spend time with Golden State and Milwaukee (as well as their respective G-League affiliates) before landing back with Lakeland in January 2022.
To review, then — one calendar year, three NBA teams, nine NBA games.
The following season he yo-yoed between Toronto and its G-League outfit, then did the same for the Sixers last season. This year he has played 34 games for Philadelphia, averaging 5.5 points a game on .484/.396/.704 shooting splits.
“Just all part of the NBA,” he said of his travels. “A lot of guys go from team to team, trying to find a place to call home. I’m grateful for all the organizations that I’ve been part of, giving me small, little opportunities, chances to play. I’m good with that.”
He believes he is more of a finished product now, that he has improved as a shooter and a leader. And certainly he showed both attributes Friday, nailing his first seven shots and finishing 11-for-20 from the field while making sure that new arrival Oshae Brissett and call-up Jalen Hood-Schifino were on the same page with everybody else.
Nurse thought Dowtin’s early barrage “gave us some confidence to hang in there.” While it didn’t last — the Pacers surged in the second half — the young point guard’s performance reinforced what the coach had long suspected.
“I’ve always kind of liked him,” Nurse said, adding that earlier in the season Dowtin “got in a little bit of a numbers game” with Tyrese Maxey, Reggie Jackson and Kyle Lowry ahead of him in the point-guard pecking order.
Now Jackson is gone and Maxey and Lowry are injured.
“Now he knows he’s got to play a lot,” Nurse said. “Knows he’s not coming out — not much, right? That always helps, too.”
Hey, Dowtin will take it. In fact, he will take whatever he can get as he attempts to carve out a permanent niche.
“You work your way up, you grind, but you have a dream of making it to the NBA,” he said. “So that was kind of my goal from graduation from college. So just keep going to work and keep putting the hours in, take advantage of opportunities and just always have confidence in yourself.”
Might take you as high as the podium. Maybe higher.