Ben Simmons has taken over the sports world in the past 2 weeks. When Simmons gets the ball in his hands there is a noticeable excitement around the arena and for fans of the sport. When he passes the ball there are collective "oohs" and "aahs" around the stadium.
Just how exciting is this young man? He has brought in attention from people all over the country, in fact, he has put the Sixers summer league games on ESPN when their team hasn't been nationally televised for years. So what is it that make this NBA prospect so much more exciting than others? For starters his court vision has been far better than advertised. He has made highlight multiple highlight reel passes in his first few games.
Meanwhile, the greatest concern to this point has been his lack of consistency with his jump shot. With his recent game against the Chicago Bulls, he was making an effort to grow confidence in his jumper. While very inconsistent he has a good starting point on which he can certainly improve.
"There's no immediate fix planned for anything with a player that is 19," Sixers Summer League coach Lloyd Pierce said. His current strengths are mainly in transition where he thrives. He is very capable of grabbing a rebound and getting out on the break and can often finish himself or use his incredible court vision to find an open teammate.
Regardless of his current downfalls, Simmons obviously shows the potential to be great. He also shows the will to try to improve outside of his comfort zones as evidenced by his willingness to go out and shoot some jump shots on Sunday night. He will certainly bring a level of excitement Philadelphia basketball that has been missing for years.
summer league should be taken with a grain of salt, though.
rebounds and assists seem to translate pretty well to the next level, so simmons should be fine. shot, on the other hand, needs work.
will he be the next lebron or will he be a taller, stronger ricky rubio?
special player, anyway...
Yeah not sure what to think of summer league games. Should be interesting to see how his skillset translates with some talent around him but also with NBA defense covering him. Definetly a unique type of player though...
Not a hoops fan, but now i'm curious