Philadelphia 76ers All-Star guard Ben Simmons is one of the more criticized players in the league. He is an All-Star, but he does not put up the numbers that an All-Star normally puts up. He is not putting up 20 points consistently and there are games where he even doesn’t score in double-figures.
What Simmons does do, however, is have a huge impact on the floor. Some wish he would score more, because has the size and skill to be a consistent 20-point scorer, but that is not what coach Doc Rivers is asking him to do. Rivers wants him to set up his teammates and running the offense.
Simmons sat down with Tyler R. Tynes of GQ Magazine and he had this to say when he was asked about aggressive basketball:
Yeah [laughs]. That’s what people don’t get. That’s another part of the game. Some guys would not be able to get shots off or get open shots if there weren’t certain players on the floor. The way I look at my game is: if you are going to guard me, one on one, I’m going to go at this guy every time. But the majority of the time, teams try to load up against me because they know I can get to the rim whenever I want. When teams do that, I’m finding my guys. All they gotta do is pull the trigger. And I trust my guys to do that.
Simmons is definitely right about that. A lot of teams will wall him off to stop him from getting to the basket and he has to be able to realize that and be able to kick out to open teammates. In this case, the Sixers have two capable shooters in Danny Green and Seth Curry who have been knocking down shots at a high clip.
Due to the play of Simmons, Joel Embiid, and the rest of the team, the Sixers are one of the top contenders in the league. They are going to be battling the Brooklyn Nets, mainly, due to their talented trio of Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving who have all had success on the bigger stages of the game.
The Sixers took two out of the three matchups with the Nets with their latest win on Wednesday, but Irving did have 37 points on 13-for-22 shooting with nine assists as he was explosive all night. Brooklyn was also missing Durant and Harden and their bench got them back into the game.
Simmons is not concerned with any of that. The only thing that matters is the win as he told Tynes and GQ:
That’s like saying, “Yo! I had 100 points.” But did y’all win? Nah. At the end of the day, nobody’s going to look at that. Yeah, Brooklyn came back at the last minute. Well, the starters were sitting down for a minute. You could also say KD, James [Harden] weren’t playing. But that wasn’t the game we played last night. So.
The Sixers do have the tiebreaker and if they can take care of business over these final 17 games, they will be heading into the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. That is going to be a big help for them come playoff time and having home-court advantage in their pocket.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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