Brett Brown was hoping the Philadelphia 76ers could debut Ben Simmons this season so they could experiment more with him at point guard.
Ever since Adam Silver announced that the Philadelphia 76ers had selected Ben Simmons with the first overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, there’s been some newfound excitement in the city of Philadelphia. That was followed by some confusion, and then some pessimism was mixed in as well. That’s the Philly secrete recipe for sports opinions, I think.
The confusion was over whether or not Simmons would play as a forward or a guard, and the pessimism was over his injury that he sustained months later just a little bit before the regular season began. That injury kept him out of this entire season.
Simmons is a tall player who physically fits in as a forward, but stylistically fits in as a guard. The big question is whether or not the team should run him as a guard or a power forward, and if they choose guard, how quickly they roll him into that position, as it is one of the hardest to play in basketball.
Related: Brown Wants to See Simmons in Summer League
In a recent CSN Philly article, Brett Brown detailed some reservations he has growing about Ben Simmons playing as a point guard:
"“I do concede the thing that we missed with him not playing after the All-Star Break is, I have this vision that I want to pursue with him as a point guard. Nobody can promise that I’m right. I don’t know either. But I think from what I have studied from truly his childhood, and high school and LSU, I feel confident that we should try this and look at it. We would know a lot more in that regard had he had played and we could know a lot more in a summer league. But we don’t.”"
Brown clearly still has a positive outlook with Simmons as a point guard, but his claim that, “nobody can promise that I’m right. I don’t know either,” is a very different tone than we’ve seen from Brown from the rest of this year. Brown, when asked previously this year, has been fairly adamant about Simmons running point, with no ifs ands or buts.
That definitely could be because at one point Brown thought that he would be able to play Simmons this season, in a season where making the playoffs was not a huge deal, and wins are nice, but not required. With that in mind, Brown could have experimented more with Simmons and tweaked with what worked and what didn’t. Instead, he will have to debut him next year, in the first year with playoff expectations, with much less of a margin for error. He won’t be able to experiment with Simmons nearly as much as he would like to.
So, can Simmons play point guard? In theory, it would seem like he could, he certainly has the skills to. But that position is one of the most mentally straining positions, and one that takes a lot of effort and a lot of skill conjoined with a lot of brain activity. Transitioning from a forward position to a point guard style of play can be difficult, and the fact that even the head coach of the Sixers is now showing even a tiny bit of doubt should be a bit unnerving.
This is all likely why Brett Brown wants to see Simmons in summer league this year again. We’ll see how it all carries out next season.