As long as the Philadelphia 76ers don't win the NBA championship, the pairing of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons was going to constantly be put into question. But their series loss against the Atlanta Hawks shone a spotlight on their problems that got too bright to ignore.
At least, that's what Hawks forward John Collins claims is what happened. The big man spoke out to The Athletic's Chris Kirschner on his beef with the 76ers and Embiid, but made an interesting claim about pushing the original process to crumble amid all the Simmons offseason drama.
Via The Athletic:
“I don’t think we’re the sole reason for what’s happening, but I feel like we shined a bright light on them and helped maybe expose or help show why Philly wasn’t doing what they were expected to do, which was get to the Finals, win championships and all of that good stuff,” Collins said.
Ben Simmons certainly underperformed during the Sixers' series against the Hawks. But a lot of that seemed to be based off of what was going on in his own head. His inability to make free-throws seemed to sap his aggressiveness out of fear of returning back to the line.
But to Collins' credit, if the Hawks didn't topple the Sixers during the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, perhaps things would've turned out differently in Philadelphia.
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