Philadelphia 76ers: Position changes for Ben Simmons and Shake Milton
Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown is tinking with positions.
Despite the NBA becoming more of a positional-less sport, positions still are important in some context, especially when it concerns the starting five of the Philadelphia 76ers. Ever since Ben Simmons has been a member of the Sixers, he’s primarily been their starting point guard. However, head coach Brett Brown appears to be open to changing Simmons’ position.
According to Noah Levick of NBCSPhilly, Brown has only been playing Simmons at the power forward position for the past few practices. Honestly, this makes a lot of sense until Simmons becomes truly comfortable shooting the ball from outside of the paint, taking away his responsibilities as the primary playmaker in the half-court would make things easier for Philly.
There’s been plenty of times opposing defenders dropped into the paint to guard Simmons. Having his act a power forward makes more sense. When he’s off the ball he can cut to the basket, set screens, and be a very good roll man in the pick-and-roll.
Brown had this to say about Simmons’ position change, per Keith Pompey of The Inquirer.
Ben Simmons is an All-Star point guard. But I consider him an All-Universe point forward. He’s been practicing at PF down at Disney. I asked Brett Brown did he have to sell the #Sixers standout on the move. Here’s his response: pic.twitter.com/TU7CyOuscH
— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) July 13, 2020
High praise to be sure and it should excite some fans about this position change.
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With it appearing that Brown plans to slide Simmons down the four spot, there appears to be several other big position changes. That means most likely that Tobias Harris will stay as the club’s starting small forward (despite that not being his best position) and Al Horford becoming a full-time reserve.
That brings up the other big position change bomb that was dropped today. According to Levick, Shake Milton has been running the team at the point guard position during these practices. Considering the mini-break out he had before the season went on hiatus, this shouldn’t be too surprising.
Star center Joel Embiid had this to say about Milton at point guard, per Serena Winters of NBCSPhilly.
Shake Milton has been the #Sixers starting point guard at practice.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) July 13, 2020
Embiid: “He’s been amazing. He’s been the starting point guard & I think he has a huge opportunity to help us accomplish what we believe we can.” pic.twitter.com/2QpmXx4fGx
Considering that Embiid is one of the best centers’ in the game, this is high praise. These practices will be essential as Brown gets both Simmons and Milton use to their new roles. Uriah Young of The Sixer Sense has suggested in the past the Simmons needs to changes positions, now we can see what results of that change will be.
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Hopefully changes position will help these two young players develop their games even further and helps the Philadelphia 76ers make a deep playoff run.