In some ways, the concern that Ben Simmons would not shoot jump shots during his time with the Philadelphia 76ers was a little bit exaggerated when viewed from the point of view of fantasy basketball.
Despite all of the attention that was paid to this aspect of his game during his departure from the team, Ben Simmons did not shoot jump shots. In his four years with the 76ers, Ben Simmons recorded a respectable 15.9 points per game on 11.6 field goal attempts on average.
His jump shot had never been reliable, and he made only 14.7% of his 3-point shots throughout those years, but he was willing to use his size and quickness to attack and finish in the paint.
As a matter of fact, his ability to threaten defenses off the bounce as a scorer made his passes more successful since he was able to draw the attention of the defender and make open looks for teammates. As a direct consequence of this phenomenon, Ben Simmons finished first in the NBA in assists that led to made 3-pointers in two different seasons.
The shot chart that Ben Simmons has been using since he joined the Brooklyn Nets earlier this season raises some interesting questions. Ben Simmons has a meager 5.7 PPG average on 4.3 field goal attempts per game through the first three contests of the season.
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There are a few qualifications that ought to be brought up at the very least. First, he only has a 28 MPG average since he has been ejected from two of those three games due to fouling out.
It is reasonable to expect him to be rusty, given that he sat out a whole season before coming back to an entirely new team that featured two players who were considered to be ultra-primary scorers.
And since being traded to the Nets, the role that was anticipated for Ben Simmons was to be that of an offensive facilitator who would put Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in positions where they were most likely to score while devoting the majority of his energy to being an elite defensive anchor. In this role, Simmons would set up Durant and Irving in positions where they were most likely to score.
Everything you’ve said is understandable, but 4.3 shots per game? In the play “Hamilton,” King George says something along the lines of “I wasn’t aware that was something a human could accomplish.” But if we read between the lines of the limited number of public interviews that Ben Simmons has given in the past few months, I think we have little choice but to acknowledge the possibility that he is shooting so infrequently on purpose.
It would appear that Ben Simmons is cognizant of the criticism that he was subjected to on his way out the door with the 76ers. What other choice did he have? It also appears that he is leaning toward it. To double down on the notion that he can be a great player without shooting, that he can in effect be a new-age version of the Draymond Green who helped propel the Golden State Warriors at the beginning of their dynasty in basketball.
Can he?
While on the surface there may appear to be some similarities in their situations (point power forward and defensive anchor, playing with two other elite shooter-scorers, one of whom may be Kevin Durant), even Draymond has taken a significantly greater number of shots than Ben Simmons has so far this season.
Green had an average of 11.8 PPG on 9.3 FGA throughout the four seasons between 2014-15 and 2017-18 in which the Warriors won three titles. This is more than twice as many shots as Simmons has taken up to this point. Additionally, Green was a willing shooter from beyond the arc, as evidenced by his 1.2 3PG on 33.4 3P%. Although he is not a particularly good shooter, he poses a real danger to the defense and can make them pay if they choose to ignore him.
If Simmons truly intends to try to play without taking any shots at all, then this final aspect presents the greatest risk. If he can’t at least put the opposing defenses in danger with his scoring, there’s no need for them to bother reacting to him at all. Why would they ever sag onto him, thereby opening up passing routes and angles that set up open jump-shot opportunities for teammates?
Simmons has still averaged 7.0 APG through the first three games of the season, which is not considerably off his 76ers career average of 7.7 APG. However, this is despite the fact that defenses are still reacting to him the same way they always have. Will that remain the case if he maintains his current scoring average of 5.7 PPG (compared to 15.9 PPG in Philadelphia) on seven fewer shots per game? After some time, the coaches of the opposing team will respond appropriately and begin playing him solely to pass.
Because of this, more than any other reason, I anticipate that the experiment with Ben Simmons playing the role of a non-shooter can only continue for a limited amount of time in its current iteration. Simmons is a proud player, and his teammates appear to have his back in helping him demonstrate that he can be a powerful player while still performing his responsibilities in the manner that he prefers.
However, Steve Nash, who is now the head coach of the Nets, was an outstanding point guard and floor general during his playing days. He is aware of what must be done in order to perform at a high level in the position, and he excelled at using the possibility of scoring as a way to set up advantageous scoring opportunities for his teammates.
A goal can be scored by Ben Simmons. Even if he does not have a jump shot or makes no attempt to use one, he is still able to rack up a lot of points in a game. Ben Simmons finished his final season with the 76ers by averaging 21.0 points per game on 13.1 field goal attempts from the final game of January till the final game of February. During that stretch of games, he scored 42 points against the Jazz, who were led by the Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert, while shooting 15-for-26 from the field.
On a much smaller stage, it was a performance that was reminiscent of another huge point guard who didn’t have much of a jump shot when he entered the league — Magic Johnson, specifically, in his legendary 1980 Finals performance sans Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In point of fact, the Magic model was what many people hoped or anticipated Ben Simmons would turn into throughout the course of his career. According to the results of Ben Simmons’ first few months in Brooklyn, he is not currently heading in that direction with the Nets.
In what position does that leave him? Even if he is no longer attempting to be Magic, Draymond did not seek to play the game without shooting or attacking in any way. In light of this, the version of Rajon Rondo who played on the early Big Three teams for the Boston Celtics from 2007-08 through 2008-09 would serve as the finest model for what we can expect to see from Ben Simmons as a scorer during this season.
During those two seasons, Rondo played on a team that featured several scoring threats of Hall of Fame status. Despite playing on this squad, Rondo averaged 11.3 PPG on 9.4 FGA, but he was as near to a non-threat from deep as possible, making 0.1 3PG on 29.9% of his 3-point attempts. Rondo didn’t even make a pretense of having a jump shot, but he did probe the defense and finish in the paint when he could.
Ben Simmons is at least eight inches taller than Rondo and is a significantly more experienced scorer than Rondo was at that stage in his career. Rondo was one of the best players in the league at that time. Even if the Nets are satisfied to not force him to shoot, at some point they will need him to at least continue to be a genuine enough danger to score so rival teams can’t entirely cheat away from him. This is true even if they are content to not force him to shoot.
It is extremely doubtful that he will finish the season with fewer than five field goal attempts per game on average. He may score in the single digits or low double digits on seven or eight shots a game, but he needs to do at least that in order to properly fulfill his job as a table-setter on a team with two all-time scorers like KD and Kyrie. This is because KD and Kyrie are both all-time scorers.
Simmons’s other stats, aside from scoring, are expected to eventually settle toward their respective averages. The fact that he had only one theft and two blocks throughout the course of the first three games may be explained by time, I believe. The steals and blocks will come to him eventually since he is still 6-foot-10 and a great athlete with excellent defensive instincts.
As long as opposing teams continue to show even a modicum of respect for his ability to scare them off the dribble, he should be able to continue racking up assists even though he will always have the capacity to crash the boards.
Even if he settles in as a high triple-double, averaging 8-9 PPG, 7-8 APG, 7-8 RPG, 1.5 — 2 SPG, and approximately 1 BPG, Ben Simmons would still be deserving of a starting position in the majority of fantasy basketball systems. If, on the other hand, he were to insist on shooting four times every game, this would have a negative impact not just on his assist total but also on his overall performance since Nash would eventually be compelled to play him for fewer minutes.
Because of the negative impact that would have on both the Nets’ team goals and Ben Simmons’ fantasy production, it is highly improbable that this scenario will play out. However, considering how the previous two years and a half have played out for Ben Simmons’ career, it is impossible to rule out the possibility.
For the time being, Ben Simmons continues to be ranked within the top 75 of our fantasy basketball points rankings. However, given the degree of unpredictability, it may be prudent to trade Simmons for a player who offers a comparable level of value if you have the opportunity to do so.
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