The Sixer Sense
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Philadelphia 76ers: Areas of improvement for Ben Simmons

Brock Landes|
Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
Philadelphia 76ers, Ben Simmons (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Following the heartbreaking conclusion of the Philadelphia 76ers 2018-19 season, Ben Simmons noted the importance of gradual growth throughout the forthcoming offseason.

During Ben Simmons‘ exit interview, he vaguely addressed the “elephant in the room”, which of course, is the curious case of his lack of frequency shooting the basketball. Nonetheless, the second-year All-Star of the Philadelphia 76ers demonstrated a desire to improve his aggressiveness and concurrently, enhance his efficiency.

The absence of a frequent jump shot, or lack thereof, within Ben Simmons’ offensive arsenal is not exactly hindering his dominance. In regard to efficiency, Simmons is one of the more consistently productive basketball players on this planet and he is only 22-years-old.

Adding the threat of an occasional jump shot presents even more difficulties for opposing defenses and contributes to improving spacing of the floor for Philadelphia. Simmons is just three years removed from college and Philadelphia’s organization is aware of his youth.

Social media, swamped with atrocious opinions and disillusioning narratives propelled by national media, has a commanding influence upon society and immediate gratification, or present focus, fuels the disdain for Simmons. The same nearsighted fans that are critical of him for his refusal to frequently take jump shots, might have failed to realize that the Sixers dared Toronto Raptors power forward Pascal Siakam to shoot the basketball, similar to how teams defended Simmons.

Daring the opposition to hurl jump shots is not a rarity in today’s NBA, juxtaposed by the Milwaukee Bucks’ newly deployed style of defense. However, despite Simmons’ efficiency and limitless upside, he is scrutinized more than a large majority of the league.

Simmons most commonly draws comparisons to Magic Johnson because of their resemblance in stature and style, but it took the Hall of Fame hybrid point-guard 10 seasons to attempt more than one three-point attempt per game. Likewise, Johnson produced 13.2 field goal attempts per game over the course of 13 seasons and Simmons’ career average is just one attempt shy (12.2).

Granted, the average distance of Simmons’ shot is a mere 4.9 feet where he made an average of 65.0 percent of his shots within five feet of the basket this season. From five to nine feet away from the basket, his percentage dropped to 42.5 percent and further, fell to 25.4 percent  from 10 to 14 feet in his second season. Simmons developed momentum that he can build on in the postseason this year, though, converting over 50.0 percent of his baskets from all three locations.

Having said that, Simmons’ jump shooting needs to improve in small increments over time, which presumably both he and Philadelphia have plenty of. To expect Simmons to, all of a sudden, feature threatening perimeter shooting and become a marksmen within the arc, is unrealistic. Rather, continual growth for Simmons shooting the basketball will almost certainly perplex opposing defenses, leading to more point production and sustainable dominance.

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Nevertheless, Simmons has a monumental impact on basketball games and can only blossom into a more efficient player. Simmons’ free throw attempt rate increased this season (0.446) by 0.104 compared to his first season (0.343). He attempted a total of 87 more free throws this season and made a total of 66 more, while improving his free-throw percentage from 56.0 percent to 60.0 percent.

In this year’s postseason, Simmons experienced a significant regression at the charity stripe, converting only 23 of 40 attempted free throws. Though this percentage is almost right on par with that of his career average, he posted a 70.7 percent free-throw percentage on 18 more attempts throughout his first postseason appearance. Again, Simmons will very likely develop a more adequate free throw percentage the better his shot becomes, but that too comes with time.

Simmons’ play-making ability and awareness on the court is unrivaled, but more aggressiveness will greatly benefit the 6-foot-10 point guard. In 2017-18, over 65 percent of Simmons’ field goals made were unassisted, but that percentage decreased by almost 10 percent this season, due to the newfound surplus of talent around him.

Simmons is a fast twitch point guard that sprints and accelerates faster than most to all players in the NBA and finishes more than 59.0 percent of his lay-ups. Therefore, provided Simmons drives more than his average of 10.4 per game (22nd) this season, he can influence displacement for the opposing defense, collapse defenses, draw more fouls and elevate his impact in the half-court offense beyond jump-shooting.

Simmons, more than anything though, needs to improve upon his decision-making, as far as engineering the Sixers’ offense is concerned. Given how often Simmons has the ball in his hands, turnovers are inevitable, but wasting possessions due to poor passes prompted by passiveness and lack of control in transition is an immediate fix.

Please do not let myopia impair perception about Simmons. He, at the age of twenty-two, joined Hall of Fame company for a myriad of feats he accomplished and is a transcending talent that solidified himself as an impeccable defender throughout the duration of the 2018-19 postseason with the Philadelphia 76ers. Appreciate what you have, before it could be gone.