It happened, the Philadelphia 76ers lost in the second round, again. I’m not going to put the majority of the blame on Doc Rivers, Joel Embiid, or Seth Curry. The Sixers role players and Tobias Harris need to do more, but they aren’t the crux of the issue for the franchise. It’s the former first overall pick, Ben Simmons.
Simmons has always been a polarizing athlete in the city of Philadelphia. He’s elite in every area of the game except for one and that just happens to be his shooting. It’s been well documented that Simmons has been unwilling to shoot the ball, but his mental block has gotten worse and in the second round series against the Atlanta Hawks, he was unable to convert free throws at a decent rate (34.2 percent).
His offensive limitation, as well as his mental limitations clearly hurt his performance as he averaged a playoff career low of 11.9 points per game this postseason. It’s clear he and Embiid can’t keep on doing the same thing each postseason and expect different results. There are only two things that the Sixers can do to get different results moving forward.
The Philadelphia 76ers two choices in how to deal with Simmons this offseason.
Trade Simmons
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The knee-jerk reaction for most fans, myself included, feels like the best course of action is to trade Simmons for a star that complements Embiid’s skill more naturally. It makes a lot of sense, the problem is if the Sixers can get equal value in return for their elite defender/playmker.
Kasey Kennedy of The Sixer Sense recently wrote about several realistic trade targets that the 76ers could look at if they decide to move on from Simmons. However, trading Simmons might be difficult considering this value is at a all-time low at the moment.
Change Simmons to a point forward.
If Daryl Morey, Philly’s president of basketball operations, decides that they can’t get equal value for their All-Star player, the other option is to change his role in the offense. That means they will have to make Tyrese Maxey or someone not currently on the roster, their point guard of the future and have Simmons play more of a point forward role.
That means Simmons will have to be a secondary playmaker with him focusing on setting screens, moving off the ball, and posting up mismatches. There was some success when the Sixers played both Simmons and Maxey together this postseason. If Maxey is given a full offseason to develop, then he could be a great option alongside Simmons. That’s if Simmons is willing to do more big man duties on offense moving forward.
The Philadelphia 76ers can’t keep Simmons in his same role, they’ve had multiple head coaches and playoff runs in which it hasn’t worked. Something has to change, so it will be interesting if he gets traded or has position changed this offseason.