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

PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 26: Dario Saric
PHILADELPHIA, PA - OCTOBER 26: Dario Saric
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CAMDEN, NJ – SEPTEMBER 26: Ben Simmons
CAMDEN, NJ – SEPTEMBER 26: Ben Simmons

Offense Ben, or Defense Ben?

Ben Simmons is not a point guard. It will be a waste of talent to force him to engage defending the perimeter when he is a big body who can pull down far more rebounds playing closer to the basket.

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  • I understood exactly what they counterpoints were saying. Ben Simmons will defend whomever the opposing team uses to defend him. That makes it simple from a coaching perspective.  But offensively, Simmons will act like the point guard, point forward, point to-the-basket-and-get-the-ball-close.  So the point I was making is simply from the offensive perspective.

    Replace Simmons with point guard

    When Ben Simmons comes off the court, the Philadelphia 76ers will replace his role with that of either T.J. McConnell, Jerryd Bayless, or even Markelle Fultz. In fact, that was one of the key fits for Fultz to the Philadelphia 76ers, the versatility to slide to point guard whenever Simmons rests.

    Now, the team can load up the basketball court with five point guards, but in the end they are all point guards at varying roles.  When discussing Ben Simmons, it’s virtually impossible to communicate without confusion.

    So that creates plenty of confusion on 140 character social media.  How do you embed referencing the team roster when discussing Simmons?  It comes down to how you see the roles of the various players on court with Simmons and on court without Simmons, right?