Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons more aggressive with jump shot

The Philadelphia 76ers starting point guard has had one glaring hole in his game, but it appears now that he’s trying to improve that weakness.

There’s no denying that Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons is an elite. He’s a 6-foot-10 point guard that has triple-double potential. He was named Rookie of the Year in 2018 and has been named an NBA All-Star in just his second season. This season, he’s averaging 16.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 8.0 assists, while making 56.6 percent of his shots. However, there’s still one glaring hole in his game.

He’s had very limited range in his scoring ability, well until the Sixers most recent game against the Los Angeles Lakers. In the past, Simmons never really searched for outside shots. This isn’t to say that he has never hit those perimeter shots.

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He did hit a deep mid-range shot against the Boston Celtics before the shot clock expired. However, he would barely ever shoot them within the flow of the offense. Almost all of his outside shots came at the end of shot clocks or quarters.

That all changed against the Lakers. LeBron James of the Lakers, defended from tip-off and James basically camped out in the paint daring Simmons to take jump shots. Which is exactly what Simmons did early and often. He attempted four shots outside of the paint, one of which was a 3-pointer. Two of the three shots he attempted outside of the paint, but inside of the 3-point line were turnaround jump shots and he converted one of them.

He may have missed the other three shots outside the paint, but the fact that he took all those shots within flow of the offense is a positive. This is an encouraging development within Simmons game and could open up an infinite of possibilities for this Sixers new core if Simmons can hit the occasional outside shot.

The fact that Simmons took a 3-pointer within the flow of the offense excited his new teammate Tobias Harris. Harris wasn’t the only Sixers player that had something to say about Simmons’ 3-point attempt.

Outside the exchange with J.J. Redick, Embiid gave his individual thoughts on Simmons expanding his range, quoted by Paul Hundrick of NBCSPhilly.

"“But I thought it was in. It was in and out. I wish it would’ve been in, but he’s been working on it. Every day we tell him, ‘You got to shoot it.'”"

The point guard has the support of his teammates which is great! It’s good that Simmons expanded his range against the Lakers and it doesn’t appear that it was a one time thing either.

It sounds like it will be a slow transition for the point guard. Don’t expect Simmons to be taking three or four 3-pointers per game. However, don’t be surprised if he does venture outside the paint at least a couple of times a game.

The fact that Simmons will be occasionally taking outside shots will help the Philadelphia 76ers tremendously in the long term and especially for the Sixers playoff run this upcoming postseason. If he can hit an outside shot every now and then, the starting five will be near impossible to defend.