Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons is catching a lot of heat for his playoff failures after the Sixers' brutal second-round series loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Simmons' lack of a jumper, horrific foul shooting and general lack of offensive aggression often rendered him unplayable in crunch time.
The conversation surrounding Simmons' jumper, or lack of one, has been a thing since he came into the NBA. In his latest piece for FOX Sports, Yaron Weitzman delves into Simmons' career and focuses on the lack of development of that jumper. Weitzman shares a conversation he had with the Sixers star in early 2020 about shooting and why he doesn't do it more, and the answers are revealing:
“But when you hear people say that for court spacing with Joel just being willing to take a corner 3,” I began replying, but Simmons cut me off.
“Our offense isn’t designed for that,” he said. “There’s things I need to work on which I’m going to do, but I think the way I play, my style, I’m able to create things. I’m a creative player, I make things happen, which 90 percent of the league can’t do. There’s only a select few players who can make plays and get guys good shots.”
“You get what I’m saying, though.”
“I hear what you’re saying, but at the same time, like, I don’t sit here and say, like, ‘I gotta do this every time.’ My game’s not based off that. Like, I do so many things on the court where I’m efficient and effective, affecting the game in different ways, so there’s things I need to work on but, I mean, if you really want you can look at other players and be like, ‘Well, this guy needs to work on his dribbling because he can’t dribble, he has this many turnovers if he’s forced to dribble.’”
Weitzman pushed Simmons on the topic of corner 3s, which he takes and makes in practice. The Sixers youngster claimed that he's always focused on getting the “best shot we can every time” and that he doesn't think spacing out to the weak-side corner opposite Joel Embiid is the best strategy for him:
“I mean, that’s a tough pass. If you count the amount of times that Jo’s going to throw that it’s not too many. And it’s not really me saying he’s a selfish player, it’s me saying that if I’m in a better position to rebound the ball knowing he’s going to take the shot, then I’d rather be there. Like, if my man goes to double then I’m going to go under the rim and Joe’s going to pass it. If my man stays he has a one-on-one.”
There's some merit to everything Simmons said, but there needs to be adaptability and versatility when certain things are taken away. Being so stubborn with this mindset is how you never improve and end up getting dragged like Simmons has been of late. At this point, it's not even about just 3-pointers, but any jumpers at all and the overall offensive mindset.
The cherry on top of this is that Simmons scored 34 points on the night Weitzman talked to him and basically gave him an ‘I told you so' afterward. Even after Game 7 on Sunday, he wanted to highlight his 13 assists and defense on Trae Young.
While Simmons can still impact the game in other ways, an inability to fix his biggest flaws will always hold him back, and we'll see if he ever ditches this stubborn mindset.
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