Ben Simmons might hold the all-time championship belt for conversations about him that don’t involve what he is actually doing on the court. Lots of headlines have been made of him fouling out of two games but how has he actually been playing? Should the Nets be hitting the panic button already?
Right now, Ben Simmons faces two primary issues: confidence and a defined role. In both of these departments, however, there is good reason to believe that he is going to improve as the seasons goes on. I would place my money on Simmons returning to his ‘prime’ form with the Sixers.
A Lack of Confidence on the Court
We could dive straight down into a rabbit hole regarding if Simmons’ mental health is in a good place or if he was really even struggling from mental health issue last season but let’s leave that for the Reddit threads. We could also talk about the fact that Simmons still has not developed an outside shot but that narrative has been beaten to a pulp. Right now, Simmons has no idea how much trust to put in his own attacking ability at the rim.
In the beginning of the Raps/Nets game, Simmons was looking for his own shot. It was most likely by design from Steve Nash to help inspire some confidence in Simmons, but who knows maybe it came from Ben. In this play, Simmons makes a nice attack at Pascal Siakam and has the step on Siakam but for some reason Simmons picks up his dribble and kicks it out to Royce O’Neale.
Just a few minutes later, almost as if he wanted to make good on this play, Simmons drives the ball Siakam and gets scared again. It almost looks like Simmons trips over the thought of finishing at at the hoop. In Simmons’ defense, Pascal has great length and certainly could have bothered Simmons’ shot at the rim.
That said he also had some really nice attacking plays in this game which makes it even more frustrating that he doesn’t try to finish these plays against Pascal. For example, here he gets OG on an island and just immediately attacks and finishes with a fun little floaty hook shot.
In the 4th quarter of this game, Ben essentially goes for the exact same shot against OG and while it doesn’t fall in, it’s the aggression that we love to see from Simmons.
Overall, it’s clear that Simmons still can’t figure out who he is on the court and how he wants to play.
A Defined Role
If you are Ben Simmons right now you are just trying to make sense of your own basketball talents and what you can do to be a winning player and a huge part of that is knowing what your teammates want and expect from you. Right now, Steve Nash has Ben playing essentially two completely different roles: point of attack ball handler and passing big man. In theory, this strategy makes a lot of sense because it can harness Ben’s talents based on who he is playing with. In practice, however, it creates a lot of confusion for Ben. It often appears that Simmons is going through a series of calculations to figure out where he should stand, when he should attack and when his teammates want him to come set picks.
One of the primary reasons that Simmons has to switch between slasher and off-brand Draymond is because Nash has been attempting to make Simmons-Claxton function as a duo. In the beginning of the play here, we see Claxton and Simmons wasting away in the left corner as Pascal guards both of them. KD makes a nice action to force pascal up and begins a little two man game with Simmons. KD gets the desired result, a double team, but then Simmons doesn’t even look for the ball on the dive and the Raptors get off to the races on a fast break.
Maybe I am being overly apologetic to Simmons but that is the type of mistake a player makes when they don’t know their role and whats required to thrive within it. Later on in the second quarter, Simmons again sets a pick for KD, the Raptors double KD and KD kicks to Simmons. This time, however, Simmons is ready for the ball and knows that if Gary Trent Jr. slides down to help that Patty Mills will be wide open in the corner. GTJ comes to help, Ben makes a perfect pass and splash.
If I were the Nets, I would have Ben Simmons focusing on playing this role. It simplifies the game for Ben in so many ways and plays to his mental strengths. In the clip above, the choice for when Ben is clear: if Trent doesn’t come to help then attack, otherwise dime to Patty. Looks that are generated in this capacity don’t allow Simmons to second guess himself, like he was in the clips above against Pascal.
Look, Nash is still trying to figure out how they want to use Simmons and thats okay. I think, however, giving him a smaller and more clearly defined role as a passing big man will hep Ben to gain confidence in himself attacking the basket. As time goes on, Ben can then become the leader of the bench offense while KD and Kyrie rest. A lineup of Simmons, O’Neale, Seth Curry, Joe Harris and Patty Mills could be a dynamic and fun bench unit. That lineup, however, would be completely reliant on Simmons’ ability to be a playmaking slasher and it’s clear that he just does not have the confidence to do that right now.
It’s early on in the season and all the teams in the league are still clearly feeling themselves out but I think Ben Simmons has a lot of gold nuggets in the rough of his game so far. I like that Nash and the Nets are trying to get Ben going early on in the game but I think Ben could benefit from a simplification of his role. I would bet on Ben Simmons returning to full form but its certainly early.
The Reedbound 