Philadelphia 76ers: What should Ben Simmons be moving forward?

The Philadelphia 76ers need to figure out what Ben Simmons’ position is moving forward.

There’s a lot of decisions for the Philadelphia 76ers to make this offseason. One underrated question that faces the franchise is what position is Ben Simmons moving forward. While it seems trivial, the distinction is important to how the franchise approaches the rest of the offseason.

Despite the NBA moving towards positionless basketball, it’s still important to have these labels to assign roles on both sides of the ball. Simmons of course is a unique case. He’s a 6-foot-10 playmakers with no outside shot and who is elite defensively.

Until the NBA restart began in the Disney Bubble, Simmons had been the de facto point guard of the Sixers. Simmons made two All-Star appearances in that role in three seasons, but the 76ers offense was limited in terms of spacing with him in that role, especially during the postseason.

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Former head coach Brett Brown realized that there had to be changes for the club to make a deep playoff run. Brown shifted Simmons to the power forward spot so that the dynamic playmaker wouldn’t have the ball in his hands as much outside of the 3-point line in the half-court. This in turn provided more spacing for superstar center Joel Embiid and allowed Simmons to work a dynamic roller in the pick-and-roll among other things.

Fans didn’t get to see this too much as Simmons injured himself three games into the restart of the NBA season. That being said, there were positives coming from position change. Now general manager Elton Brand and whoever is Philly’s next head coach has to figure out what Simmons will be moving forward.

Why it’s important.

What position Simmons should dictate what moves Brand makes this offseason. Starting with the most important one which is finding a new head coach. Brand needs to have a vision of how he wants Simmons and Embiid to play together and what roles he sees for both, but especially Simmons.

Once he has that, Brand can find a coach that has that same type of vision for Simmons, then he can try to add the proper talent around Simmons to accent whichever role they both agree on Simmons having.

That brings up another point. Whatever transactions that Brand makes should be dictated on whether or not Simmons is a point guard or power forward. If Simmons is a point guard, then the Sixers should search for a shot creator who is a wing, but if he’s a power forward, then they should search for a starting level shot-creating point guard.

It could also impact who the 76ers try to trade. It’s pretty obvious that Al Horford should be traded if possible regardless of Simmons’ position, but depending on which position Simmons plays it could impact how active the front office is trying to trade Tobias Harris.

Harris is best suited as a power forward, but he played out of position all season long at small forward. Harris still had a pretty good year, but when the playoffs started it was clear he struggled against elite perimeter defense. If Simmons is a power forward, Brand should have more pressure to trade Harris.

Deciding Simmons’ position will have major ramifications on the Philadelphia 76ers and it’s one of the first things Brand needs to figure out rather quickly.