Heard Colin Cowherd fully jump on the Ben Simmons bandwagon this morning on the radio. Says he had an epiphany, "Simmons will change the game like LeBron." That's a dude who can't shoot worth a lick like an another media obsession. -- Giannis. Meanwhile, the true innovators of the game -- Harden and Curry continue to showcase why its a guard-centric shooters' league now. I don't get the obsession with players who can't shoot worth a damn in this day and age.
Well, shooting is something a young player can develop. Some guys do get much better after a few years working on it. But of course, some players never. Court vision and IQ are in-born talents. You either have it or you don't. I can understand why they are so high on dudes like Simmons.
Yes, this is same type of argument that has been made for Giannis and 5 years into it he still can't shoot. That's why Boston rookies are running away with that series. Simmons is being hailed as the next LeBron -- who by the way took 10 years in the league to develop a reliable jump shot while he was in Miami. Before that LeBron relied solely on his freakish strength and athleticism to score at will in the paint. Simmons has none that going for him. It's plain and simple a shooter's league nowadays. By college, if a player hasn't developed the fundamentals and shooting stroke then most likely he never will. The best shooters in the game today: Curry, Harden, and Durant were already there as shooters while still in college. Simmons is a great young player with great vision and IQ like you said, but his game has the same holes as another rookie phenom Lonzo Ball. In this era, I'd rather have a Jayson Tatum or Donovan Mitchell who are both light years ahead of Simmons and Lonzo as shooters.
When talking about Ben Simmons, I always START with Magic as a reference...Take it where you want after that, but there are too many parallels to ignore. Ben came in and immediately impacted this Sixers team to the point that they are a real threat out East, assuming Embiid's health. BS has the amazing court vision/passing skills. Sick ball handling skills for a guy this size. He can play any position. He is a defensive monster across the board. And, like Magic, he can develop his J. Also, Ben has a feel for the game and gets it in the flow. High BBIQ Magic was a coach on the floor and you can already see the leadership/ understanding in Simmons. Will anyone ever have that LOVE for the game that Magic exuded..doubt it, but Simmons reminds me of him in many ways. With Embiid on the floor, BS plays a different game at this stage, but remove him and look what happens...He fills up the stat sheet. This guy's about winning, and if Embiid is healthy, look out for Philly over there.
Between Simmons and Fultz -- two players who are fatally allergic to shooting a 3 pointer -- the Sixers will get run out of the gym by the Rockets and Warriors of the league with their shooting. In fact I would say even the Celtics have the better young core of shooters in Tatum, Brown, and Rozier than the Sixers. Add a heathy Hayward and Kyrie and that's the team to beat in the East the next 3-5 years. The Magic-Simmons parallel is great and perhaps true, but this isn't 80's basketball. You need to shoot threes at a high volume and efficiency to win in this league. Sure, Simmons is surrounded by great shooters like Redick, Bellinelli, and Saric, but at the end of the game, the ball is in Simmons' hands and nobody respects him on the perimeter. That's not a championship formula.
Magic is a career 85% FT shooter, Ben is hovering around 55%, I am doubtful that Simmons' jump shot can progress very far at all. Magic was a bad 3 point shooter, Ben has yet to attempt one.
Harden has good shot selection, but I wouldn't say he is a good shooter. CP3 is a better shooter than Harden, but harden is a more efficient scorer. You don't have to be a great shooter just pick good shots. Some of the shots curry takes are not good shots he just makes them because he is such a good shooter.
Got that Dame Lillard butthurt! Wonder if they also said "They ain't gonna be no more layups ... not as long as I'm around."
Harden is a good shooter, his percentages aren’t great because of his shot selection...most of his shots are highly contested and very difficult, and he creates almost all of them on his own off the dribble...he hardly gets any assisted baskets Idk how u can say Harden isn’t a good shooter...u don’t shoot 37% from deep on the type of threes he takes if you’re not a good shooter
Plus the fact that he shot 56% from the FT line is not just concerning. It’s down right terrifying. I mentioned it in another Simmons thread... he shot worse than Deandre Jordan on the same amount of attempts basically. Being a bad FT shooter isn’t always synonymous with being a bad shooter except it is with the exception of maybe a few guys I can’t think of. The fact that he only attempted 11 total 3 pointers all year and made 0 suggests that he knows he can’t shoot and that he’s smart enough to realize that (unlike say Josh Smith... more on him below) so that’s good at least. Take a closer look at his shot chart and percentages and you can see everything is basically at the rim. There’s a big drop off once he’s 3ft-10 ft away. Beyond 10 ft? Forget about it. https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/simmobe01/shooting/2018 When I see Simmons play he reminds me of a combination of taking the best attributes of Rondo and Josh Smith in their primes. Some of you will flame me but that’s my opinion. You combine Rondo’s high basketball IQ, vision, ability to distribute and his self awareness of his shortcomings and take Smoove’s body, size, length, athleticism ability to put the ball on the court as a big man and create a mismatch and subtract his chucking/poor shot selection and you end up with Ben Simmons. That’s a damn good player but still severely limited. A phenom? Next Lebron James? Once in a generation talent? As of this day? Not a chance.
Covington needs to stfu about Dragic's layup and instead focusing on making his shots. Looking overpaid at this point.
Yes. But I think Simmons has better court sense than Lonzo. And he doesn't have an obnoxious father to serve as a distraction of his development
Joel Embiid Vs. Modern-Era HOF Centers PPG RPG BPG Joel Embiid 28.9 11.6 2.3 Shaquille O'Neal 27.8 12.7 2.7 David Robinson 25.4 12.1 2.8 Hakeem Olajuwon 25.3 12.6 3.6 Patrick Ewing 25.1 12.6 2.8
