Philadelphia 76ers top overall pick Ben Simmons reportedly grew two inches this season, and may now be 7 feet tall, according to NBA rumors.
The Philadelphia 76ers are a very tall team. They’ve got Joel Embiid, who is reportedly 7-foot-2, and teetering on 7-foot-3. Dario Saric is not that far below 7 feet himself. According to Basketball Reference, the Sixers are the sixth tallest team in the league this season.
According to recent comments from World B. Free, however, it looks like one of the pieces the team plans on debuting next season is even taller than we thought. In a thread dug up on Reddit, Free, when talking to the CSN broadcast crew, mentioned to Simmons that it looked like he shot up two inches since coming to Philly. Simmons was 6-10 when he came in, so that would place him right at 7 feet tall.
Jon Johnson of WIP claimed that Simmons is “just below” 7 feet tall.
Can confirm Ben Simmons is just under 7'.
— Jon Johnson (@jonjohnsonwip) April 6, 2017
Liberty Ballers did a decent job of covering the height news.
Simmons was drafted last June, and played in Summer League, but did not appear in the preseason due to a Jones Fracture in his foot. Simmons and the team, throughout the whole season, seemed optimistic that he would debut this year, but it was eventually reported that the foot was not healing as expected, and that he would have to miss the entire year.
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Simmons is just one of the many lottery pick rookies that has missed his rookie season over the lat several years for Philadelphia. Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel both missed entire seasons in what should have been their rookie years. Jahlil Okafor missed a significant amount of time over the last two seasons.
Simmons is expected to hold the point guard duties going into next season. When he was 6-10, that was surprising, and something that seems a bit scary for opposing defenses. 7 feet tall makes that sound even more daunting.
Now, in all reality, two inches isn’t a ton. The fact that he’s breaking that 7 foot mark seems to be what’s infatuating people here. But put yourself in the shoes of an opposing team for a moment. You’re about to face off against the Sixers. The lights are low. The flames are shooting as the starting lineup is named. Here are two of the intros you would hear:
“The 7 foot forward (or point guard?) from LSU, Ben Simmons!”
“The 7-foot-2 center from Kansas, Joel Embiid!”
And that’s not even mentioning some of the other names, like Dario Saric (and Markelle Fultz?!).
What are you going to think when you hear that? You’re going to think about how hard it’s going to be to contain that height, to suppress them from a pure frame standpoint. Add onto that the sheer talent that is packed in those frames, and you’re probably going to want to just head home and take the L.
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The Sixers are going to be good, and a lot of what they’re going to do is going to be done with tall ball.