When a coach takes over a new job, they have an idea of what their roster can do. Obviously, a basketball coach is going to watch a lot of the basketball team he is about to take over.
However, there are always a few different surprises that can still pop up in any instance.
For Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers, he already had an idea of what he had in Ben Simmons. He is inheriting a guy that is one of the top players in the league who can do so many different things out on the basketball court, but now that he has an up-close view of him, Rivers now sees just how fast he is out on the floor.
“I would say I knew he had speed, but I didn’t know he had the afterburners,” Rivers laughed. “I guess when he puts his speed on, it’s unbelievable how fast he is. I guess the biggest surprise is I knew he was a good on-ball defender, I didn’t know he had the instincts off-ball that he has and that’s a very good surprise.”
It is with the intention to use that speed as to why Rivers wants Philadelphia to play a faster, up-tempo offense with Simmons playing more downhill in this new offense. The Sixers went out and acquired shooters like Seth Curry and Danny Green in order to make it easier for him to play faster and downhill in a cleaner, more open space.
The question then pops up about whether he can do that with Joel Embiid on the floor as well. As seen in the past, the Sixers are able to run that faster offense when Embiid is out and they can focus more on Simmons’ strengths of pushing the pace and creating plays for others.
“That’s like human nature,” Rivers said of Simmons playing without Embiid. “One of your star guys are out, the other guy thinks he has to do more, and he probably does do more. That’s probably natural.”
What Rivers wants is for Simmons to continue to push the pace even with the big fella on the floor with him.
“I want him going downhill, no matter who’s on the floor and every night,” he added. “There’s a lot of times Joel gets the rebound, outlets it to Ben, Ben shouldn’t wait. If Ben can get it downhill, we want him going downhill. Going downhill doesn’t necessarily mean ‘shoot the ball’, it means ‘create a play’. I thought the one thing that stood out in the Indiana game was how many times we got the ball in the paint and the shot was a three and that’s what we mean. The typical paint points, no one would call that a paint point, but to is it is.”
The season gets set to begin on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see this new Sixers team get up and down the floor on offense.
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