With Simmmons thriving, Brown lets his guard down
For a year, it was up to the 76ers’ sports-science department to shield Ben Simmons from all NBA dangers. For seven more games, it would be Brett Brown volunteering for the responsibility.
While Brown’s was a more subtle approach to over-cushioning a possible franchise star, it was nonetheless uncomfortable. Sports science had used surgery and therapy and rest and more rest. Brown? He used three guards. Simmons was one. And J.J. Redick and Jerryd Bayless were to be his wing men, in more ways than one.
It was unnecessary. And by Wednesday, it was over. That’s when Brown decided that the Sixers and Simmons truly were meant for each other. That’s when he committed to a more realistic two-guard starting lineup. He’d seen what so many others had seen through his rookie’s first seven 76ers games: That he was more ready for the NBA than the NBA was for Simmons. He’d let the others do the adjusting.
“Great athleticism and great ball skills,” said Mike Budenholzer, the Atlanta Hawks’ coach. It was before a game in the Wells Fargo Center Wednesday, and he was likening the Sixers’ rookie to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the unique, Milwaukee Bucks star. “There is the ability to handle the ball, put it on the floor and attack the basket. Giannis is probably scoring a little more. Simmons is a heck of a passer. Just the size and athleticism and ball-handling make them very, very similar.”
That’s what the Sixers paid for with a 10-win season and a sap of their professional soul. But through seven games, that’s what they’d received, a smooth point guard with the ability to score and rebound and help win games. For that, and with a minimum of flourish, Brown Wednesday made it official: Simmons no longer needed to be protected in a lineup. So, it would be as it should have been all along. Simmons would share a backcourt with Redick. Robert Covington would slip to a three-spot. Dario Saric would play power forward. And they would all benefit from the presence of Joel Embiid. With Redick out with a back issue Monday in Houston, Brown used a two-guard starting lineup, too. But with both Redick and Bayless available Wednesday, the standard-backcourt set was by design, not necessity.
Pretending it didn’t matter, Brown went into a small tutorial on the floating-lineup policy often used in San Antonio. But it did matter, for a few reasons. One was that Saric needs to start in order to thrive. He has said as much. The other, though, was an admission that, in just seven games, Simmons had earned the right to be on his own.
At first, even Brown would brace for trouble when he started the 6-10 Simmons at the point. Not certain his rookie could defend smaller NBA guards, he needed to maximize his defensive options. That job would fall either to Bayless or Redick. But any potential matchup issue was quickly minimized when it was shown that few, at any position, could thoroughly guard Simmons, either.
“I think it’s tough to have somebody my size guard me full court,” Simmons said. “They try and put guards on me, which is what they probably should do. I think I still surprise them.”
The typical No. 1 overall draft pick should never come with the risk of surprise. He should arrive as a given, a pre-packaged star, a franchise-maker. But Simmons scored 47 points in a recent two-game trip through Texas. In a victory in Houston, he also shot 3-for-3 on 15-foot jump shots. Through his first seven games, he had at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. Only Oscar Robertson had been as prolific through his first seven NBA games.
“People have come up and pressured him,” Brown said. “By and large, you are seeing that type of bigger, mobile three-men guard him. We really have yet to see a four-man come out and guard him as our point guard. And I think over time you are going to learn more.
“But to date, pressuring him, sagging him, I don’t believe it has fazed him.”
The Sixers could still have some matchup issues. Simmons does not fit defensively against smaller NBA stars. But late in games, Brown will play T.J. McConnell and Simmons together in the backcourt, while allowing Simmons to use his length to defend at the four spot.
It all has a chance to work, for one reason: Simmons has been more unusually gifted than necessarily expected. His only surprise: He hasn’t been even more successful.
“I thought it was going to go a little better, win-wise and playing-wise,” Simmons said. “But I’m getting there. It just takes time.”
It took a year to get his body ready. By Wednesday, he was conceding that the year off helped him prepare mentally, too, for the NBA. Next? “I’ve got to dunk it more,” Simmons said. “Once I start dunking ...”
As his voice tailed off, he smiled. The layers of protection were gone. He was ready to be on his own.