Rivers won’t order Simmons to shoot
Two-time All-Star has made just two 3-pointers in his NBA career
The first time Ben Simmons turns down an open three-point shot, Doc Rivers won’t mind. He won’t mind the second time, either. Or the third.
The new Sixers coach won’t even grumble should Simmons go an entire season without taking a shot from more than 10 feet. Or two seasons. Or three. Four?
“I don’t care about Ben’s shooting as much as so many other people seem to care about it,” Rivers said Tuesday, as the NBA season neared. “I care that he is a great player. And I am going to let him play. I’m going to give him the keys and let him be free to play.”
Brett Brown gave Simmons the point guard spot, let him be free, then asked him to take one threepoint shot a game. The idea was to loosen a defense, but also to push Simmons into a natural growth as an NBA player.
Simmons responded by barely attempting a three-point shot at all, and the season ended with a coaching change.
“If he takes no shots, I’m fine,” Rivers said. “If he takes 10 threes, I’m fine. If he gets to the line 15 times, I’m fine.
“I want to allow him to play and not cloud his head up with a bunch of stuff.”
Simmons is a two-time AllStar, but he has been often neutralized, particularly in the postseason, by defenses backing off and challenging him to shoot.
In his three-year career, Simmons has shot 2-for-24 from three-point range, including multiple beat-the-buzzer, half-court heaves.
“It’s about winning,” Rivers said. “And that’s what I want Ben to focus on: How to make each other better and more.”
As for Simmons and Joel Embiid not having won a title to this point: “They haven’t won one ... yet,” Rivers said. “That ‘yet’ is the