Ben Simmons: The Somehow Disputed Rookie of the Year

Despite revolutionizing the modern NBA, recording six triple-doubles in his rookie season, and propelling the Philadelphia 76ers to the playoffs, some do not see Philadelphia 76ers Ben Simmons as the 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year

For some reason people do not have Philadelphia 76ers’ Ben Simmons on the top of their Rookie of the Year ballots. Despite the fact that Ben Simmons is having an amazing rookie year, almost TOO amazing.

Simmons is averaging 17 points, seven assists,eight rebounds, two steals, and one block while starting at the point guard position. And towering over 6-10, no other player in the NBA can do what he does. A position that everyone labeled as an “experiment” at the start of the year.

And He is leading a young 76ers team to a playoff spot. When you look at his production, you see he is a workhorse. He is not missing any games, and he is playing the most minutes on his team. But yet some “experts” will say that Ben Simmons is not the Rookie of the Year. Why? Who knows.

The Rookie of the Year Argument:

Instead, these experts defer the honor to Utah Jazz rook Donovan Mitchell. Now Mitchell is also having a good rookie year. His 19 points, three assists, and three rebounds is nothing to scoff at. In fact, any other year it would probably be enough to win him the honor. However, this is not any other year. By just looking at the numbers alone you will see that Ben Simmons is producing more for his team than Mitchell. Yeah he doesn’t score as much as Mitchell, (BARELY) but everything else he does is what really sets himself apart.

What Simmons does on the court goes way beyond the stat sheet. The 76er offense runs solely through Simmons and Joel Embiid. Simmons deserves way more credit for how superbly he has lead this team. He brings the ball up, orchestrates plays, directs traffic, feeds the ball to Embiid, and overall just leads the team to victory.

NBA sports writers create controversy

Donovan Mitchell doesn’t do these extra things. Mitchell mainly plays off the ball for the Utah Jazz. Even though he is the best pure scorer and maybe the best player on the Jazz, he isn’t their facilitator or leader. It is pretty unprecedented to see a rookie come into the league and immediately be one of the leaders of his team.

The NUMBERS

First I want to talk about Simmons’s consistency. When you analyze the numbers, it is pretty staggering what Simmons does on a nightly basis. 10.25 points, 5.75 assists, and 5.75 rebounds would be pretty good average statistics for a rookie. However, Simmons averaged these numbers during the worst 4 game stretch of his pro career.

To put things into perspective, Malcolm Brogdon won Rookie of the Year while averaging 10.2 points, 4.2 assists, and 3.8 rebounds for the entire season. So far this season Simmons has scored 10+ points in 50 out of 55 games.

To add to that, Simmons has grabbed five-plus rebounds in 47 out of 55 games. He has dished five-plus assists in 46 out of 55 games, and he has 22 double doubles and six triple-doubles to go along with all of that. WOW.
(all stats used from basketball-reference.com)

The greatness effect:

Now my theory is that Simmons suffers from something that I like to call the “greatness effect”, which means that he is consistently so good that when he even has an average night, it is looked at as a failure. This is ridiculous considering that, for the most part, Simmons doesn’t even have average nights.

What even is a “bad” game for Simmons? If you take his worst five games as a pro, he would be averaging (only) 4.4 turnovers, 6.4 points, six assists, and six rebounds. (Illuminati confirmed!) These numbers are better than what many lottery picks are putting up this year. Even in these bad games Ben Simmons is pretty dang good.

With all of this in mind it staggers me that someone would call another rookie better than him. Simmons is a prime example of the “greatness affect”. He’s consistency in the league has almost seemed to bore the critics. In the NBA there is one other player that comes to mind when you think about this “greatness affect”. LeBron James.

The Ben Simmons and LeBron Comparison

It’s hard not to see the comparison of size and style of play when you look at James and Simmons. Simmons and James are both near 7 foot players that can play any position on the floor. But not as notably, neither player gets the respect they deserve for being the best in the league. While Simmons has many years to prove his worth in his career, he is hands down the most talked about first-year player this season. As such, Ben Simmons should be the Rookie of the Year this year, period. He is putting up numbers to prove it as well as passing the “eye test” on a nightly basis.

LeBron James should be the Most Valuable Player in the league every year! He has been consistently the most important player on the Cavs and he has put up MVP numbers every season he has been in the league. This season has not been amazing for LeBron. However, “not amazing” is averaging 26 points, nine assists and eight rebounds while dragging a dysfunctional Cavs team to a three-seed in the east.

Next: No thank you, LeBron James

This “Not amazing” season should technically win James an MVP award. But LeBron won’t win the MVP award this year and there is a chance that Ben Simmons won’t win Rookie of the Year. All of this due to the fact that these two players might just be too great for their own good. Greatness comes with a price. The question is, will the price for Simmons be the Rookie of the year award?