Ben Simmons was constantly in the headlines last season due to his trade saga with the Philadelphia 76ers. The 3x NBA All-Star made it abundantly clear that he did not want to continue playing with Joel Embiid and the Sixers. As a result, he demanded a trade.
After months and months of drama, Simmons finally got his request fulfilled when he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets around the NBA trade deadline day. While Simmons was finally out of Philly, he has yet to play a single game for the Brooklyn Nets.
He battled with mental health and injury issues for the remainder of the season. However, Simmons is finally completely healthy now. Keeping that in mind, NBA fans have high expectations from the young star. After all, he will be forming a Big 3 alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
David Aldridge Highlights Ben Simmons Has A Great Opportunity To Succeed
The biggest flaw in Simmons’ game to this day remains his inability to shoot well. This flaw was highlighted a lot when he was playing for the 76ers. Fortunately, the Nets have plenty of great shooters, and Simmons doesn’t need to worry about that aspect of his game.
(Starts at 20:57)
Via The Athletic NBA Show:
“You can clown on Ben Simmons, he’s earned some of that, right? But, Ben Simmons never played on a team with this many shooters on him. He never had this many shooters in Philly … If it doesn’t work, it’s because of Ben. It’s not because of anything else. The way that Golden State uses Draymond at the elbows, that’s how I would use Ben Simmons in this offense… They double KD, swings back to Ben at the top of the key and he’s gotta be going downhill at that point. And I’d live with whatever decisions he makes ’cause there’s gonna be shooters on either side of him or he can go to the rim himself.”
As DA explained pretty well in the podcast, if Simmons fails to perform well next season, it’ll be his fault. Hopefully, Simmons will play with a chip on his shoulder, as one NBA analyst predicted.
If in case the Brooklyn Nets fail to have a respectable win total next season, it will certainly mean the end of the road with the Nets for at least one player among KD, Kyrie, and Simmons.
.