Simmons knows he has to start shooting ... which is progress
PHILADELPHIA » In the initial bursts, on the surface, in the context of freestyle preseason NBA basketball, Ben Simmons has revealed the capacity to delight.
Tall and smooth, good with the ball, able to shoot with either hand, a rebounder, a playmaker, he has used two games to show 76ers fans why he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft. For that, they cheer his every move.
But for moments during the Sixers’ 110-102 preseason loss to the Boston Celtics Friday, the 17,668 in the Wells Fargo Center were jarred with NBA reality. They saw that Simmons needs to improve in two areas to rate conversation space with the great NBA point guards. Kyrie Irving, who made five of seven threepoint shots and scored 21 points, is one.
Though he matched up some but not often defensively against the Celtics’ superstar, and instead was asked to open on off-guard Gordon Hayward while Jarryd Bayless took on Irving, two of Simmons’ most nagging faults were on display. One was that he doesn’t defend with passion. Rather, he often sags, positioning himself for a defensive rebound or a passing-lane interception … plays that would allow him to break into the open court and fashion highlights plays.
That could improve when the value of the games and the intensity of the planning improve. And it wouldn’t be the first time a long guard was encouraged to create offense from the defensive end by denying second shots or creating turnovers. But the other issue, the one that has been mentioned since he was struggling to win games in his one season at LSU, will not so easily be dismissed. That would be Simmons’ unwillingness to take outside shots. In his one year of college basketball, he took just three three-point shots, making one. At 6-10, that likely was the LSU plan. Nor was it enough to discourage the Sixers from taking him No. 1.
But the structure of the 21st century NBA requires point guards to provide offensive integrity by burying outside shots. Friday, Simmons took a handful of midrange jumpers and no three-point shots. He is two preseason games into his NBA career and he has yet to shoot from beyond the arc.
“When open, just shoot it,” Simmons said after shooting 3-for-8 from the field and 2-for-6 from the line in 22:43 of playing time. “So I’ve got to start shooting the ball.”
At some point, that will grow from optional to mandatory. And if the Sixers expect to be a playoff team, that point is near. Already, Brett Brown is acknowledging he’d like to see Simmons shoot more from distance, even if two preseason games are insufficient to declare a crisis.
“I do when he feels like he should,” Brown said. “I don’t feel that it is going to be the thing that defines him. It’s probably going to be the thing that people pay the most attention to. But for me, it isn’t. And so, you saw the other night that they sagged off Ben, and that’s always interesting. It’s how they are going to guard Ben Simmons. And when he feels that he’s got his rhythm, and when he feels good about his shot, then I encourage him. He spent so much time this summer on that.
“Our goal for him has always been to finish at a high percentage, and to become a 70-percentplus free-throw shooter in his first NBA season and growing it. It has nothing to do with his three-point shot or even pull-ups. They will happen. But they’re not what I hope defines him.”
What will define Ben Simmons is winning basketball games. There are multiple ways he can help. He has been excellent in penetrating and finding open teammates for three-pointers. Friday, he had five assists. And the Sixers should start to win games once Dario Saric and Joel Embiid, neither of whom has played a preseason minute, return.
“In a perfect world,” Brown said, “you would put four shooters around Ben, or four shooters around Markelle and off you go.”
The Sixers are not that perfect. But they were 14 for 31 from three-point range Friday, a productive 44.2 percent. J.J. Redick, 3-for-3 against the Celtics, and Embiid can be threepoint threats. Bayless was hot from distance early. If that’s Brown’s plan, it can function. But for how long?
One preseason game in his only NBA season is not enough to define Simmons Fultz, as he relates to a Kyrie Irving. But there was a staggering difference in the production of the two point guards Friday. That’s because one was willing to shoot from distance. And the other was admitting that he would have to try.