Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Ben Simmons continues to face offensive issues that have dogged him for the entirety of his career despite his obvious talent. While he makes a big impact on the game, his refusal to take any jump shots has been a big issue.
Combine his refusal to shoot jumpers with his struggles from the free-throw line and he is almost a detriment to his team on the offensive end in the half-court. Unless he is pushing the pace and getting to the basket, the opposition does not defend him when he has the ball past the free-throw line and that is an issue that he has to fix.
Everybody sees Simmons knock down a bunch of 3-pointers in open gym runs as he continues to show that he does have the ability to knock down these shots, but it still doesn’t show in an actual game.
Former 7-time All-Star Joe Johnson talked to TMZ Sports about Simmons’ offensive struggles and he explained that it is all about a lack of confidence at this point:
“I honestly don’t think nothing’s wrong with it,” Johnson tells us. “You see him playing pickup basketball shooting jumpers, fadeaways, threes … so we all know it’s there.”
“He just has to take that same confidence that he has in pickup and translate it into an NBA game,” Johnson adds. “That’s it. You’re gonna miss and make shots, you can’t care about the misses. He’s just got to continue to take them.”
It’s clear that Simmons has the ability to knock down those shots from the perimeter. He just has to step into it and be able to shoot it with the needed confidence. While that day might not come in Philadelphia as he has requested a trade from the organization, it all comes down to what he will do at this stage of his still early career.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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