Philadelphia 76ers: Evaluating Ben Simmons as a point guard

Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons is currently among the top five players in assists per game, and through 12 games has shown that it’s possible to play point guard at an elite level despite being 6-foot-10.

It’s hard to say if Ben Simmons’ play with the Philadelphia 76ers have proven me right or wrong. I was right about Simmons being a better player than Brandon Ingram, but I was wrong about the need to not play Simmons as a point guard. I thought playing Simmons as the primary ball handler majority of the time would be a mistake, because the current NBA usually requires point guards that can shoot to make a successful offense.

After 12 games, it’s safe to say that Simmons joins John Wall as the rare point guard that enters the NBA with a broken jump shot and succeeds despite this limitation.

Wall averaged 16.4 points, 8.3 assists, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.8 turnovers per game while playing 37.8 minutes per game during his rookie season. While Wall made 41 percent of his shots that season, he only shot over 50 percent less than five feet away from the basket with shots ranging from 5-to-34 feet being no higher than 34 percent.

When Wall made his first All-Star game during the 2013-14 season, he averaged 19.3 points, 8.8 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.6 turnovers per game while playing 36.3 minutes per game. Wall made 43 percent of his shots that season by making 63 percent them less than five feet from the basket and 37 percent of them from 10-14 feet and 25-29 feet.

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Wall’s improved shooting helped lead the Washington Wizards to the playoffs that season and Simmons’ current performance is better than Wall’s rookie season and not too far off from the season he made his first All-Star game and playoff appearance. Simmons is averaging 17.4 points, 7.8 assists, 9 rebounds, and 3.8 turnovers per game while playing 34.1 minutes per game.

One area that Simmons has over rookie Wall is shooting. While Simmons has made 48.6 percent of his shots, his overall percentage is taken down by the 28.2 percent he’s shooting from 10-to-14 feet. Simmons’ elite ability to get to the basket was something many people underrated when evaluating him for the draft, so it’s not surprising that he’s making 65 percent of his shots taken less than five feet from the basket.

But one aspect of Simmons’ scoring this season that should give Sixers more hope than they already have and keep opposing teams up at night worrying how they’ll be able to stop Simmons if this shooting holds up, is Simmons’ making 50 percent of shots taken between 15-to-19 feet. Obviously, the 12 shots Simmons has taken from that range isn’t enough to guarantee Simmons has fixed his shot, and his 60 percent free throw shooting suggest his shot still needs work. But if Simmons can be expected to make close to half of his midrange jumpers, the spacing issues that caused me to be against him playing point guard could be not existent in the near future.

The ability to get teammates the ball in situations that makes it easier for them to score is usually the top responsibility of the starting point guard and Simmons excels at that. Anyone that watched Simmons play in college would likely complain how LSU head coach Johnny Jones used him, so Sixers’ coach head Brett Browns’ decision to allow Simmons to control the offense resulting in him upping his assists per game by three over the 4.8 assists he averaged per game in college isn’t shocking.

While Simmons currently ranks fifth in assists per game among all NBA players, the amount of points his teammates scored with the help of his passing is impressive. The Sixers top four scorers in points per game are Joel Embiid (19.8), Simmons (17.4), Robert Covington (15.7), and J.J. Redick (15.6). 18 of Embiid’s 74 made shots came from assists from Simmons, 23 of Covington’s 65 made shots were helped by Simmons, and 10 of Redick’s 57 made shots were from Simmons’ assists.

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Through 12 games Simmons has been a better point guard than the most optimistic Sixers’ fans hoped for and is on his way to becoming the best tall point guard since Magic Johnson.