November Takeaway: Same old Ben Simmons
We’ve been catfished by Ben Simmons and his offseason shooting videos. I never thought he would show up as an elite 3-point shooter after a couple of months of work, but I thought he would at least try to shoot from somewhere outside of the paint. I was wrong, apparently.
He’s the NBA equivalent of meeting a girl online who claims to be a model but actually turns out to be a taxidermist from north Florida named Larry who doesn’t have any money to pay for the drinks he ordered while he was waiting for you to show up. You thought the model thing might be a lie, to begin with, but this is pretty jarring. That’s how I feel about Ben Simmons right now.
All jokes aside, this is the worst that Simmons has ever looked in the NBA on the offensive end. Not only is he not shooting the deep ball at all, but he’s also just been frustratingly passive in general.
After the departure of Jimmy Butler, there were a lot of possessions and shots up for grabs. Simmons, along with Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris, was one of the logical choices to help pick up the slack. Instead, per Basketball-Reference, Simmons is setting career lows in points, field goal attempts, free throw attempts, and usage rate. Translation: he’s not being aggressive.
Simmons is starting to creep into the next chapter in his career where his high potential is slowly being exchanged for a general understanding that this might just be who he is. At 23 years of age, he’s far from a finished product, but there is a real chance that Simmons never becomes the top tier player we thought he could be after his promising “rookie” campaign in 2017-18. While that would be disappointing, it certainly wouldn’t take away from all of the things he does well like his elite-level passing and defense.
Quality is oftentimes based on expectations. If you’re still expecting Simmons to be a top ten-ish player, you’ll be disappointed. But if you take him for what he is then his value becomes more apparent. Maybe it’s time to stop expecting Simmons to be the model and accept him for the steady north Floridian taxidermist that he is.