The Philadelphia 76ers are off to a 22-10 start as they enter the Christmas Day matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, but there have been concerns surrounding a team whose stated goal is to win a championship in 2020.
One of those big concerns has been the lack of progression in Ben Simmons’ jump shot. The Sixers point guard does so many good things on the floor, but the big concern has been his jumper in a league so predicated on shooting and spacing.
General manager Elton Brand in the preseason said the team wants him to shoot and that he’s going to shoot, but the numbers have not been there. He has taken only five 3-pointers on the season and he has made two, so there is some type of progression there, but there has to be more.
“We believe in Ben. We believe in his shot and his progression,” said Brand before the Christmas game. “He’s a point guard, 17 assists the other night (Monday), he wants to make the highest percentage play every time. He will unlock another level of our team once he starts doing that more and he knows that, coach (Brett Brown) knows that, and we’re working towards that.”
Simmons has made big strides in his game in 2019-20, especially on the defensive end where he is quickly becoming one of the top defenders in the league regardless of position. He has closed games out on that end coming up with big steals and big stops on the defensive end and it’s something that Brand has acknowledged.
“Ben, leading the league in steals, playing defense, closing games in defense, and I think fitting into the team,” he said. “My goal is to have a better team so that takes time, that takes growth.”
For the Sixers to have success in the playoffs, however, they will have to figure out the Simmons spacing issue. There were many times in the previous two playoff seasons where teams would block Simmons off from going into the paint and then that was it. The offense would bog down and it would cause a lot of dysfunction and it made life tough for Joel Embiid to operate on the low block.
“Ben’s going to do more than his fair share defensively,” Brand added. “I think he’s going to unlock some other things with his spacing. We’re going to put him in places on the court that Joel and the rest of the team can be successful. It’s not a concern.”
With the concern of this team being his jumper and the spacing in the playoffs, it would make sense for him to take more jumpers in the regular season in preparation for the postseason.
“If it’s not going to happen in the regular season, the time to work on it, it won’t happen later on in the season or in the playoffs,” he added. “It’s a work in progress, it’s true, and once he gains the confidence and realizes that that’s a high percentage play for the team and for us, we’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.”
The Simmons jump shot issue will continue to pop up throughout the season as the team steamrolls towards the NBA Playoffs. It’s an issue that has to be fixed sooner rather than later. [lawrence-related id=22090,22082,22067]