Who’s on first? Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons dilemma

The role of Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons is ambiguous and changes depending on whether the perspective is offense or defense. So communicating roles on the Philadelphia 76ers can be quite challenging.

The Philadelphia 76ers selected Ben Simmons at number one in the 2016 NBA Draft. A virtuoso of basketball talents, he defies a traditional category in basketball terms.  That is a good thing. But when discussing the team’s depth chart, it all gets pretty confusing.

I learned this lesson the hard way when I wrote an innocuous article about the Philadelphia 76ers trade of power forward Shawn Long to the Houston Rockets. In that article, I pointed out what seemed to be obvious. Power forward Shawn Long was on last year’s roster. Trading him created an opening on the roster at a position the team had already identified as a need. Sounds logical right?

Nature abhors a vacuum

If you trade something away without immediately replacing it, you create a void. That, on an NBA roster, is a new need.

And so, I asserted that nature abhors a vacuum.  After all, despite the late season appearance where the young man appeared in just 18 games for an average of just 13.0 minutes , he added 8.2 points and  4.7 rebounds per game.  That is a decent showing for a rookie.  That body needs to be replaced now.