As long as Ben Simmons remains in the Sixers, Philly will not be a true Finals contender. Most of you are waking up to this but there are still a lot of people in denial. His inability to not only shoot, but to even attempt a shot has been a detriment to this squad in key moments.
It doesn’t matter that Ben Simmons is a good passer, that he’s 6’10 and 240 pounds, or that he is unstoppable once he gets to the rim on a fast break. It doesn’t matter that he makes nice passes every now and then. The reality is that this is a shooters’ league, and if you’re not good enough to floor space and be taken seriously by defenders as a viable shooter, than you are essentially making things easier for the defense and making it harder for you and your teammates on offense.
Teams don’t have to put a guy on Simmons. As a result, they have that extra guy to double Embiid or drop a little back towards the paint to make it harder for Simmons to take advantage of his size and speed to get to the rim. The gif below shows it.
Some of you would say “hey, the Greek Freak isn’t a great shooter and he’s doing great. The Spurs gameplan against LeBron was to let him shoot in his Finals matchups against them.” First and all, don’t pretend like Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James having shooting issues are the same as Ben Simmons. Those guys still take ACTUAL SHOTS from all over the court. They may not be great shooters so you would live with them shooting sometimes, but that’s way better than Simmons. Remember, Simmons DOESN’T HAVE A JUMP SHOT. He’s not comfortable shooting and has gone by without it.
Philly has taken steps to accommodate for Simmons’ strengths and weaknesses. Because placing him on the 3 point line while off ball would be laughable, he is usually placed near the rim. His strength in scoring comes from him being close to the basket. One would say that it is good because now his skill set can be maximized with passes to him nearby.
However, it is inconvenient for his teammates. Star big man Joel Embiid is a center that is best served playing close to the basket. He needs space to operate by the post so he can score and pass close to the rim. When Simmons is standing close to the basket off-ball while Embiid has the ball, it clogs the paint and gives Embiid less room to operate. It also negatively affects floor spacing and provides Embiid with one less shooter to pass it too if he gets a double-teamed. Simmons ability to cut and receive dishes from Embiid doesn’t outway the aforementioned negatives.
In order to prevent the paint from being clogged, Embiid would usually be the one asked to space the floor. Yes, the big man does have outside shooting range, albeit not great, and he has the athleticism to get to the basket with a good Euro step. However, it is not ideal since he is at his best when he is posting up or scoring a mid range jumper off the pick and roll.
Embiid has struggled staying in the best of shape. Some of this is because of his diet and some of it is because he’s always recovering from some injury and having to play himself into shape. Some Embiid critics and haters will complain that he’s to blame with the issues this team has had with making a deep run. Don’t get me wrong, his footwork can be sloppy, he can be sluggish, is out of shape, and is injured prone. However, some of these issues get exposed more when he’s playing with a non shooter in Simmons.
It’s easy for us to say Embiid is slow or out of shape when he sluggishly struggles to get to the rim from the three point line. Jokic from the Nuggets or the former player Shaq didn’t have to worry about that. Since their guards and forwards can all shoot, they weren’t asked to be at the three point line and have to drive in as much compared to Embiid. As a result, their own lack of shape doesn’t get exposed as much since Shaq is down by the rim and Jokic is usually around 16 foot from the rim.
All of this holds back the half-court offense and prevents it from being better than what it currently is. You can only scheme up enough ways to get him to cut to the basket and he can only find creative passing lanes for teammates in the half court to a limited extent. Some of you will say that he’s still good, they make the playoffs, and that he’s only 22 with room to grow. They also say his numbers are good because he’s averaged roughly 16 points a game, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds.
The problem is that even though he is young, it’s hard to make a non shooter into a serviceable one. He needs to get a real jump shot and put in thousands of hours in the gym practicing. However, he appears to be more interested in dating than putting in a lot of hours in the summer to improve.
Many Simmons defenders would argue that he’s still good but that his flaws and Embiid’s game don’t mix. Some of you would say that these guys are better off not playing together. The argument is that Simmons should play with 4 shooters and let him always dribble penetrate and then kick it back out. However, Simmons flaws would still hold him back because teams will still sag off on him to dare him to shoot in the half-court offense. Teams will double other players and leave him alone off-ball when he’s not near the rim.
The bottom line is that so much of Simmons’ game mainly works with tempo and on fast breaks where his combination of size, speed, and passing ability are maximized. This is why his team can overcome his flaws in the regular season and even in the first round against weaker opponents. He ends up looking good for the most part in those moments. As soon as they get to the later rounds, it becomes more difficult for the team to work around Simmons’ flaws because the game slows down and they’re going up against better competition. As long as these flaws in Simmons’ game remains, the Sixers will not be able to win an NBA Finals with this window they have.
