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Estimated reading time: 14 minutes
Ben Simmons stats, facts, awards, and his unique versatility for the Philadelphia 76ers. Ben Simmons stats 2021 stats season aren’t where some Sixers fans think they should be.
Should Philadelphia trade Simmons for a star that can put up better scoring numbers, even if that scoring comes at the price of the defense?
WHAT ABOUT BEN SIMMONS OFFENSE? After Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons pushing the ball at 6’11, 240 pounds is the next aspect Sixers opponents focus on in their defensive game plans.
If it’s not, then it’s going to be a long night for the 76ers opponent. He must be slowed down or he will destroy you. At his size, with his speed, strength, and vision, Simmons is a nightmare if he gets downhill with pace in space. Baseline-to-baseline, he’s murder.
He is able to do this by penetrating into the paint, when he does, the defense collapses down on him, this is when his vision takes over and he finds the open man.
If Ben Simmons develops a jump shot he is the best player in the world. Without a jump shot he is just one of the best, most unique and versatile players in the NBA.
Ben Simmons stats don’t tell his true value to the Sixers. I don’t know what the Sixers fans saying “Simmons needs to do more offensively” are watching, or if they’re actually watching the games at all. They’re probably just looking at the box scores.
Is it that Ben Simmons makes it look way to easy when he drives into the paint, as three defenders collapse down on him, that makes fans assume all point guards are capable of doing this?
The attention Simmons draws, it opens up his teammates, this is offense, people. When you say he doesn’t do enough, your vapid comments come off as foolish. They come off as bad fans with negative energy, whining and crying. These people think they know the game but have no idea how versatile and unique Simmons’ game is, let alone stop to appreciate it.
You embarrass the rest of us who have to explain, “No, not all Philly fans are A-Holes who lack proper knowledge”. Don’t be Worried about Ben Simmons stats. Stopping the opponent from scoring is what wins championship rings.
Of course it would be better if Ben could shoot some, but he’s only 24-years-old and many NBA players can’t do anything but score. What Simmons does pushing the ball and when he’s on defense, he does better than any player in the NBA. These are the things that you can’t win without.
You can always get somebody who’s capable of scoring the ball. What Ben brings is rare and his skillset is a diamond in the rough.
Next, Philadelphia faced the Boston Celtics in the 1st round of the NBA playoffs. The Sixers without Simmons got swept by the Celtics, even though Joel Embiid led both teams in points and rebounds in that series. Embiid averaged 30.0 points-per-game and 12.3 rebounds.
DID IT MATTER?
The Sixers defense is the main reason that they took the leap to becoming an elite NBA team and became the top seed in the eastern conference. Joel Embiid almost winning the MVP was the top factor but without Ben guarding four positions, this team isn’t the top seed.
Offense is pretty and it’s nice to look at but Defense wins championships. EVERY TIME. Without Ben Simmons defense, the Sixers don’t have the 2nd best defensive rating in the NBA.
Without him, the Philly perimeter defense isn’t very good. Simmons is so versatile defensively that he makes up for mediocre defenders on his team who try hard but don’t have the lateral quickness or awareness to be great defenders.
The Sixers played the Los Angeles Lakers back in January, for long stretches in that game, Ben defended LeBron James, then picked up Anthony Davis, and Dennis Schroeder in man defense, when the Sixers needed stops.
Coach Doc Rivers shares the same sentiments as I did in a previous article, Rivers said “The numbers [for Simmons] will say offense, but the defense and all the other things he did was unbelievable.â€ÂÂÂÂ
His stats don’t even begin to tell his true value to the Sixers. He has welcomed the toughest, elite defensive assignments throughout the 2021 season.
Ben Simmons was robbed of the 2021 NBA Defensive Player-of-the-Year award. Utah Jazz center, Rudy Gobert won the award for a third time. The Sixers point guard scored 42 points against Gobert in February, this is Ben Simmons career game high in points.
Ben Simmons doesn’t have the defensive stats like rebounds or blocks the way Rudy Gobert does because he doesn’t play in the paint. He did lead the NBA is steals and was a 1st team All-Defensive selection in 2020 but Ben Simmons stops his opponent from getting offensive stats more than he gets defensive statistics because he plays his defense on the perimeter.
Simmons is 24-years-old and he is about three years away from the start of his prime. Intelligence and Experience at the point guard position is precious.
Ben Simmons stats don’t matter when weighing his greatness but here are just some of his career stats and where he ranks for the Philadelphia 76ers all-time, already.
Ben Simmons’ best seasons are ahead of him. His prime will begin around 2024 or 2025 and I still hear Sixers fans saying “I’m supposed to wait”?
YES, IDIOT, YOU ARE, WTF. LEBRON JAMES, SHAQUILLE O’NEAL, AND MICHAEL JORDAN, THEY ALL WON THEIR FIRST NBA TITLES AT 28 YEARS-OLD.
Ben Simmons career stats and his awards read 4-year pro, Rookie-of-the-Year, three straight All-Star Games, All-NBA, 2020 steals champ and a two-time first-team all-defensive team selection, and he should have won the 2021 Defensive-Player-of-the-Year award.
Game 3 of the Atlanta Hawks vs the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2021 Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Have you heard or said yourself “Ben Simmons has to score more for the Sixers“.
Does he have to do that?
Why?
The Sixers are averaging the most points-per-game in the 2021 NBA playoffs(123.1 PPG).
I mean can you believe this guy, if it wasn’t for him, the 76ers could be averaging even more than the most points in the NBA Playoffs.
STOP EMBARRASSING YOURSELVES, YOU DON’T DESERVE TO CELEBRATE A CHAMPIONSHIP BEHAVING LIKE THIS.
In the opening round vs the Washington Wizards, Ben Simmons stats read 14.8 points-per-game, 10.2 rebounds, 9.2 assists-per-game, over a steal-per-game and 4 blocked shots in five games.
Ben Simmons finest stat in this series was his assist-to-turnover ratio. This is the stat that really tells you about a point guard. He had a ratio of 4.2:1, which is just magnificent.
It means he turns the ball over once for every 4.2 assists he gets. This is a phenomenal number. Phoenix Suns point guard, Chris Paul has the best career ratio of all-time at 3.92.
Ben almost averaged a triple-double against the Washington Wizards. In the first game he only had six points and missed all six of his free-throws.
Here is what head coach Doc Rivers said after the game about Ben
“I thought he was special,†coach Doc Rivers said of Simmons. “Whoever he guarded struggled scoring, he created so many points for us, off the glass to three, off transition to three, creating switches that they didn’t want to have.
“He is just a treasure. He is something that you don’t see a lot of in this league and he has such a skill set that’s so different. … All I see is his greatness and I just want him to keep doing what he’s doing.â€ÂÂÂÂ
The newest trend amongst Sixers fans is talking about trading Ben Simmons while the Sixers are still in the playoffs. BTW, real piece of crap thing to do.
If the Sixers had Bradley Beal or Damian Lillard instead of Ben Simmons, they wouldn’t be the top seed in the East.
Their defense would suffer, it would end “the process”, as it pertains to actually being championship contenders.
If it was the Sixers would have played the Blazers or Jazz in the 2021 NBA Finals. These are the 3 highest scoring teams in the 2021 NBA playoffs.
In the playoffs the 76ers are currently 2nd in the league with a point differential of +11.7.
The Sixers point differential would be worse if they added Lillard or Beal and subtracted Ben Simmons. What Simmons does best, as I’ve mentioned is things championship teams have to do to become champions.
It is not a coincidence that the “Trust the Process” Sixers didn’t make the playoffs until Simmons played his first game. You could see immediately that they were a playoff caliber team from day 1 against the Wizards in 2017-18.
When Joel Embiid missed game 5 in the 1st round, Simmons recorded his first career playoff triple-double. He scored 18 points and had 7 assists in game 3 vs Atlanta of the eastern conference semi-finals too.
Don’t forget the 17 points, 10 assists, and 4 steals in the game 1 defeat. He almost recorded another triple-double in game 4 with 11 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 blocks.
Ben had a lot of trouble from the free-throw line during the series. In game 5, the Sixers led by 26 points, they were up 18 points heading into the fourth quarter.
When Ben left in the 3rd quarter, the Sixers were up 87-69. He re-entered the game less than 3 minutes later the score was 87-76. When he was taken out again in the 4th the Sixers didn’t score a single point again.
When Ben Simmons left the game at the end of the 3rd quarter and then again in the 4th quarter, the Sixers didn’t score a single point while he was on the bench.
Simmons was 2-4 from the free throw line in the final quarter, I would have let the Hawks continue to foul him, putting Atlanta’s players in foul trouble and the team into the penalty.
Without Simmons in the game the Hawks had no trouble scoring and the Sixers didn’t score a point. The Hawks came back to win the game with a surprising 30-point turnaround.
Simmons had 9 assists and 2 turnovers and he had a + 7 plus/minus rating for the game. Tobias Harris was -10, Matisse Thybulle -17, Dwight Howard -14, George Hill -7, and Shake Milton was -8.
In the game 6 win, Simmons had six points, five assists, and nine rebounds, it wasn’t a good game for the former first overall pick.
In game 7, Ben Simmons played 36 minutes and he had 13 assists and 2 turnovers. After defense, protecting the ball comes next in what wins games in the NBA playoffs.
In games 5 & 7 combined the Sixers had 32 turnovers. You’re not winning with that number. Ben Simmons had 22 assists and 4 turnovers in those games.
Has this ever even happened before, where the team has 32 turnovers but the point guard had only 4 of these ?
Joel Embiid had 13 of the turnovers as the teams center. That is unacceptable.
Everyone blames Ben Simmons for not scoring as the reason the Sixers lost in the 2nd round, but no Eastern Conference team scored more points than the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Only the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers averaged more points-per-game in the playoffs.
Now it seems Simmons will be traded before training camps open up for the 2021-22 regular season. This has the potential to be the worst trade in NBA history, if Ben develops a jump shot.
All summer long it has ben reported that for the 2021-22 season, Simmons won’t report to training camp. It’s reported that he wants a trade ASAP.
Too many novice fans want to act like they have some deep knowledge of this sport when in reality what they are suffering from is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. This is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.
In this case the ability they’re lacking is evaluating NBA talent. The bias results are an internal illusion in people of low ability.
It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from people’s inability to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their level of competence.
They don’t even recognize that the Sixers perimeter defense would become a serious weakness without Ben Simmons. Many of these same fans don’t realize that the defensive end is the important end of the floor. It matters the most, and without it you can forget about contending for championships.
If you are one of the people who thinks the Sixers would be better off with a scorer who doesn’t defend even one position well, and you’re not willing to listen to drawn out facts or reason, unfortunately you most likely suffer from this internal illusion.