The Sixer Sense
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Ben Simmons Being Out for the Season Does Not Slow the Rebuild

By Josh Wilson

Jul 12, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Ben Simmons (25) dribbles the ball during an NBA Summer League game against the Golden State Warriors at Thomas & Mack Center. Golden State won the game 85-77. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 12, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Ben Simmons (25) dribbles the ball during an NBA Summer League game against the Golden State Warriors at Thomas & Mack Center. Golden State won the game 85-77. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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Ben Simmons will not play for the rest of this season, but that does not slow the Philadelphia 76ers‘ rebuild at all.

When Bryan Colangelo spoke to the media on Friday mostly regarding the Philadelphia 76ers moves at and leading up to the NBA Trade Deadline, he dropped a bomb on fans. Ben Simmons, the team’s top overall pick from the 2016 NBA Draft, was deemed out for the entire season due to his foot not healing properly.

The team never gave a timetable for Simmons’ return, but regularly stated that it was their “hope” that Simmons would make his debut this season.

The announcement was something that hurt, but something Sixers fans kind of felt was coming. Simmons’ injury, looking at most cases with a Jones Fracture, should have been healed in January. Given that the team likes to take things slow in regards to injuries, it was reasonable to expect his debut to be pushed to at least February. So when the All-Star break came around and he still hadn’t played, it seemed like something was up.

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At the same time, this is all very confusing. Simmons looks fine, and we have seen videos of him dunking and doing things that seem to imply that his foot was fine.

Of course, most of us are not doctors, and players can do things that look like they’re healed, while in reality, there’s things going on underneath the skin and inside the body that are damaging and will be cause for concern long-term if not treated.

We saw this with Joel Embiid as well. He said that when the re-injury of his foot came up he felt no pain.

A lot of fans seem to have this sentiment that the rebuild is being slowed down a lot by Simmons’ injury, and that’s not true. While him being out for the season hurt, and it stinks that yet another rookie is missing an entire season, a lot was able to happen in his absence.

Joel Embiid is the largest success that occurred while Simmons was out, and by my estimation, Simmons’ absence allowed Embiid to be better than he would’ve been if he had to share the court with another future superstar.

Additionally, Dario Saric, who gets the bulk of his minutes in the power forward slot, has exploded as of late as a really great young NBA star. Although he and Simmons could have seen the floor together, Simmons likely would have taken some of Saric’s minutes, which would have made his development go a bit slower.

Lastly, we should remember that Embiid missing his first two seasons in the NBA allowed the Sixers to work closely with him to develop his jump-shot and bulk up his upper body. Simmons has muscle already, but could use some fine-tuning on his shot. With a foot injury, the expectation is that his form should come in more refined after this season off.

So with those things in mind, Simmons missing this year isn’t half bad.

Additionally, with this news of Simmons missing the rest of the year coming before the Sixers All-Star break was over, there were 26 games remaining. Those 26 games are not a lot, and Simmons would have come in likely with some of the same stipulations as Embiid this season — no back-to-backs, and a sub-20 minute restriction every game.

With five back-to-backs left after the All-Star break, that would start Simmons with 21 possible games to appear in, and assuming his minutes restriction would be around 20 minutes per game (and that’s probably generous) that would be about 420 minutes that he could see this season.

For context, Hollis Thompson played over 500 minutes as a Sixer this season.

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420 minutes would allow Simmons to get a little bit of a jump on next season, but not a ton. If there is any risk of injury at all, it makes sense to be precautions and forgo those 400 minutes, doesn’t it?

The Sixers are not going to be a playoff team this year, even if they go 15-5 in their next 20 games. Simmons coming back would bring up some issues as it is chemistry-wise, since he has not played with this roster yet, so the emergence of him to the floor this year wouldn’t help the team in the short term.

There is no reason to rush Simmons’ return for this year. The team has already said that they plan to run him in Summer League.

While sitting Simmons with a goal of getting him to be Rookie of the Year next year isn’t something I’m interested in as a main reason for sitting him, it is an added bonus. The Sixers will almost undoubtedly have a Rookie of the Year this year. Simmons makes their chances next year pretty good, too.

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Sitting Simmons for the year doesn’t hurt the team in the long-term, and fans shouldn’t be too upset that that is something that is happening. The rebuild is still strong and moving along just fine.