For the Philadelphia 76ers to have any shot at truly competing for a championship in the future, it will have to rely on the play of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. The two young stars have achieved a lot of individual success, but they have yet to breakthrough in the playoffs.
As new coach Doc Rivers looks to take on the challenge of getting the most out of his new star duo, he understands their shortcomings. For Simmons, it’s obviously his lack of a jump shot.
“I’m not that concerned by it like everyone else is,” Rivers explained. “I’m concerned about figuring out the best way to win and if it takes doing all that, then we’re going to figure that out. I’m so much more concerned about my team scoring than I am about individual scoring. Individuals can create scoring and Ben is proven that he is a guy that can create scoring. Whether that is him doing it or creating scoring for everyone else on the team.”
He then added that he is not too concerned about the jump shot because he also knows that Simmons can do so many different things on the floor.
“This is what I know about Ben: he’s an All-Star, he’s an All-Defensive player, and the games that he and Joel play together, they win 65% of the time,” the coach added. “I don’t see a lot of bad there. He’s young and I’m sure there’s things we’re going to work on and get him better at attacking. I just have the confidence that we can get this team to be the winner.”
As for Embiid, he is one of the top players in the league who has received a lot of criticism for coming up small in the bigger moments. However, he did average 30 points per game in the playoffs against the Boston Celtics. Rivers has coached star big men such as Kevin Garnett, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan in the past so he is excited to coach the Sixers big man.
“Joel is an amazing talent,” said the new man in charge. “Having coached Kevin Garnett, DJ, Kendrick Perkins, there’s just so many different levels of bigs and in this generation, that level has changed even more now that they’re out shooting threes and in some cases, even running the offenses of teams. I think Joel can do all those things…I think he is a dominant big man and will be a dominant big man for me”
There is a school of thought that says superstars do not want to be coached and they only want to run things. Most people will point to somebody like Kyrie Irving, for example, who has a reputation for being a coach killer. However, Rivers says that idea is completely wrong and he is ready to coach these two stars to the next level.
“This misnomer that stars don’t want to be coached is not true,” he explained. “Stars absolutely want to be coached. They want to get better. They want to learn as well. We have two young ones here in Philadelphia and they have already had success. My job is to add to that and to get them to a place that they have not been. They’ve done a lot of winning, but they want to be the winner. Winning is great, but being the winner is the best and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
It sounds like Rivers is ready for the challenge ahead of him in Philadelphia. Whenever the 2020-21 season begins, he does have the pieces to win here. Now, it’s all about putting it together. [lawrence-related id=38145,38142,38139]