3. Raise the roof
There is a high ceiling at the Center, which is a good thing because Ben Simmons has a high ceiling for his career.
Remember that Simmons put together an NBA Rookie of the Year season after not playing at all for a year due to a broken foot suffered on the last day of training camp in 2016. And his one year playing in college for an LSU team that could not even qualify for the NCAA Tournament did not exactly sharpen his skills for the NBA.
On the other hand, Tatum was playing with the top of the tops at Duke while Mitchell was a big star at Louisville. Both transitioned immediately from high-level college to the pros. Tatum also received the benefit of being coached by Mike Krzyzewski while Mitchell learned under legendary coach Rick Pitino. Can you even name Simmons’ college coach?
So Simmons had to scrape a year of rust off and raise his game after not getting much of a challenge in college, and he still set records for a rookie.
He now has had a full offseason to work on raising his game, as well as have some relaxing down time.
What should that mean? His passing will be better, somehow; his defense should improve, his offensive repertoire (including possibly a jump shot?) will be even more dangerous.
Basically, even though he had a great first year, look to the ceiling because Simmons is nowhere close to reaching it — yet.