To the surprise of many, former 76ers star Ben Simmons ended up finding a new home late in free agency after signing a one-year deal with the Kings. Now, the three-time All-Star has a big opportunity to repair his value. However, the latest update on his offseason work is nothing more than a glib reprisal of a familiar source of doubt for Philly –– his purported focus on honing his three-point shot.
David Patrick, Simmons' godfather, who currently serves as the associate head coach for Arizona State, recently said in a podcast appearance that the 30-year-old has been shooting live three-pointers in camp, not caring whether he makes or misses them. He stressed that Simmons has regained his confidence and swagger back--traits that the latter evidently lost since his final season with the 76ers. Having said that, the entire city of Philadelphia has seen this movie before.
Ben Simmons update will have the 76ers reliving a familiar nightmare
Patrick definitely has good intentions with his remark, but this rote from Simmons and his close circle is not entirely a foreign thing. The NBA was not founded yesterday, and his alleged efforts to work on his three-point shot (and really, just his shot in general, have been documented so often that it has become some sort of a meme to signal the quiet part of the offseason.
Until and unless proven otherwise, every single individual following the league has a good reason to believe that Simmons has yet to break out of his self-inflicted bridewell, one probably vandalized with the phrase "thou shall not shoot." His final postseason run with the 76ers onward, which includes stops with the Nets and Clippers, made that abundantly clear.
Well, in the slim chance that his godfather is right, Simmons will automatically enjoy a passive endorsement of himself as a tenable contributor to a winning team. After all, he is still a good defender and a great playmaker, and those things coupled with his size and supposedly passable three-point shooting make for a unique mix that will leave a lot of teams interested in his services.
Nonetheless, it would be prudent for Sacramento to exercise a world of caution and approach this update with a grain of salt. The 76ers know fully well how usually this shaped up in the end, and as everyone knows, the recurring ending has these things painted as a complete sham.
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