Seeing Ben Simmons make a steal, eat up the basketball court with a couple of long strides and deliver a two-handed dunk definitely brought tears to the eyes of many an avid basketball fan, especially those of the world’s greatest basketball league-the NBA.
As shocking as it might sound, there are basketball fans who aren’t enamored by the spectacle the NBA is. The showy, flamboyant and sometimes over-the-top display of masculinity is a bit too much for some hoops lovers.
On the tactical and stylistic side, basketball fans, especially those in Europe, aren’t enthused by the NBA’s pivot from the fundamentals of the sport that is heavy on rebounding and pass first team-oriented basketball.
The modern NBA has Centers prioritizing scoring points from beyond the three point arc and Point Guards prioritizing scoring points than generating better shot openings for teammates and assists.
Simmons is a throwback playmaker who looks to pass first than score first and is trapped in a Power Forward’s body; he’s a 6 foot 10-incher who scores points close to the basket and in the open court.
However, all that has been missed for pretty much two seasons with Simmons battling injuries and mental challenges, hence the outpouring of positive messages over Simmons’ display in an exhibition game. After an extensive wait, the big Aussie is back in the mix and doing well so far after registering 10 points and three assists in 14 minutes.
What caused Simmons to fall off from a career that was destined to end up in the NBA Hall of Fame early in his career was the league failing a former number one overall draft pick by having him stuck on the Philadelphia Sixers teams that had one too many players who needed the ball in their hands to produce.
Simmons was forced to play as a floor spacer who shoots three pointers and his ability to handle the ball was limited too playing next to Joel Embiid.
His first run out with the Nets was supposed to better but with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster and demanding for the offense to run through them, Simmons was relegated to the background.
Battling physical ailments and mental challenges also proved to be stumbling blocks for Simmons too. It sounds crazy to say the NBA failed Ben Simmons; where is the personal accountability in all this you say? Well the NBA, like all American based sports leagues, operates in a socialist vacuum in a very capitalist society.
As such, the worst teams get the best young talents through a draft whereas the best talents go to the big teams as soon as possible in other jurisdictions.
The various teams in these leagues (MLS, NFL, NHL) work to make the league unit better and working to fix a former number one overall draft pick and generational talent is great for business for the league and is something that has been done for several decades.
After a strange string of hesitations to give Simmons the best chance to excel, the NBA is finally doing right by Simmons by surrounding him with shooters and having him operate as the main ball handler. In Brooklyn’s 126-129 loss to Los Angeles Lakers, Simmons played with Cam Thomas, Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Mikal Bridges.
Claxton isn’t a floor spacer by any stretch but his athletic runs to the rim constantly puts pressure on the opposition’s defence to account for him as a lob threat especially playing with three scorers in Thomas, Bridges and Dinwiddie.
An even better situation for Simmons, is the incoming addition of three-point shooter Cameron Johnson who is dealing with an injury.
Having Johnson serves Brooklyn Nets and Simmons very well since Thomas, Bridges, Johnson and Dinwiddie have the right size to fill the spots outside the Center position that Simmons can fill when playing against a team hell bent on forcing the Aussie to attempt shots several feet from the rim.
As a two-time member of the NBA All Defensive First Team with a 6-foot 10-inch frame, Simmons’ versatility stretches to Center spot. By surrounding him with shooters and scorers, Simmons at Center can operate the way two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Award winner, Nikola Jokic does for the Denver Nuggets.
In the Mile High City, the Serb operates next to a scorer with a three-point shooting range like Dinwiddie and Jamal Murray but is tasked with pushing the ball up court and setting the offense in motion.
Simmons works best operating in this mode since he has the court vision of Jokic and is just as strong but way faster than the big Serb.
There is another benefit inherent in surrounding Simmons with shooters and scorers on the Nets as his versatility aids in improving the team’s depth.
Playing against a team that stretches the floor to its max means the Nets would ideally fix Simmons at Center with Claxton getting paired with Simmons as the ideal matchup for Brooklyn when the Nets play against a Cleveland Cavaliers that employs two big guys at Center and Power Forward.
By having the possibility of Simmons at Center, Claxton could move to the second unit and feature with Royce O’Neale, Dorian Finney-Smith, Dennis Smith Jnr and Day’Ron Sharpe with Lonnie Walker IV and Darius Bazley waiting in the wing.
The Eastern Conference’s top tier is pretty much set with Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics leading the way and Miami Heat in a tier close below this group.
Cleveland and Philadelphia Sixers occupy the tier beneath Miami and somewhere between the Heat and Sixers plus Cleveland, there is the Brooklyn Nets who have the capacity to become a dark horse conference title contender just like Miami.
A lot of that has to do with how Nets coach Jacque Vaughn uses the chess piece not named LeBron James in his lineups leveraging on the Aussie’s strengths and trying hard to wipe out his weaknesses.
Simmons has to do a better job of improving his midrange and three point shot efficiency and attempts to push opposition defences to pay a bit more attention to him when he is off the ball.
Former Boston Celtics now Memphis Grizzlies Guard, Marcus Smart scores just enough of his many three-point shot attempts to make defences account for his presence off the ball.
However, at 27 years, Simmons is pretty set in his ways and should he fail to pivot his game to a floor spacer the way Brook Lopez did even at an advanced age, the Brooklyn Nets and indirectly the NBA, needs to continue with its Ben Simmons redemption module after failing to do so the first time out.
Like other American sports leagues, every move done by the NBA is done to protect the logo and make the league grander that it already is.
Just as the league someway, somehow managed to turn Andrew Wiggins’ non-impactful 18-point scoring average on Minnesota Timberwolves into an impactful member of the Golden State Warriors title-winning squad, it can do same for Ben Simmons and is well on its way to doing exactly that.
