Welcome Simmons

[Unbreakable99]

Will opponents sag off on Ben Simmons at perimeter and go under him on screens when they defend him?

My guess is he'll back down his defender to counter this.

#thingsIthinkaboutbeforegoingtobed

They definitely will. Why should they fight over the top? Make him hit a jump shot. But they can't keep backing up because he will eventually get close to the basket.

[cksdayoff]

i mean simmons can get to anywhere on the floor with his handles, and quickness. If his teammate sets a screen near the painted area, does it matter if the defender goes under the pick? Ben will still drive to the basket and at least get to the foul line

[76ciology]

i mean simmons can get to anywhere on the floor with his handles, and quickness. If his teammate sets a screen near the painted area, does it matter if the defender goes under the pick? Ben will still drive to the basket and at least get to the foul line

You mean like Evan Turner?

[cksdayoff]

i mean simmons can get to anywhere on the floor with his handles, and quickness. If his teammate sets a screen near the painted area, does it matter if the defender goes under the pick? Ben will still drive to the basket and at least get to the foul line

You mean like Evan Turner?

if Evan Turner was 6'10"+, with a 7'1 wingspan, quicker, faster, stronger and better hops, then yeah

[AI_Efficiency]

They are misleading more often than not. If advanced stats suggest that Paul George didn't have a good year this season, then it's time for advanced stats to be put to bed. Paul George was excellent all season.

They said he was very good but had distinctly better seasons before the injury. The basic advanced stats had him as maybe the 25th best player this year, used to be more like 8th or 10th a few years back. Pretty sure that's what ppl were saying about him during trade talks. (I would also hold off on gloating about this being the 'real Paul George' since he shot 6/8 on 3s the other day and that's obviously not who he is as a shooter. He had a really good game, but we'll have to see the rest of his postseason to know what he can do when going all out these days.)

If advanced stats said he's the 25th best in the league, then it's laughable. Anyone who knows even s tiny bit about the game knows George is way better than that.

Just want to point out Zach Lowe's all NBA votes. George doesn't make any of the teams. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19144926/zach-lowe-picks-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-2016-17
That's one person's opinion but most people don't expect George to make an all NBA team this season. Like you and others have said, maybe when he's really trying he's better and he's just slacked off this season. That's possible. But as far as his regular season has gone, he wasn't a top 20 player.

[76ciology]

i mean simmons can get to anywhere on the floor with his handles, and quickness. If his teammate sets a screen near the painted area, does it matter if the defender goes under the pick? Ben will still drive to the basket and at least get to the foul line

You mean like Evan Turner?

if Evan Turner was 6'10"+, with a 7'1 wingspan and better hops, then yeah

I'm not saying BS is bad nor Sauce is more than what he is.

If you look at Sauce, the game just favors shooters nowadays because it's tough to stop them from penetrating without the handcheck and need to stay close at them. Sauce is not quick nor has star level handles but he can get fairly get to the paint. CJ also is a good example.

If you bulldoze and force your way into the paint. You force the contact and the refs might allow more physical play and might lead to less foul calls.

If you watch the Cavs and Bucks operate with LBJ or Giannis, to some extent even the limited games BS played in SL. Giannis, LBJ and BS would back his defender down until they close to them making the screen more effective.

[cksdayoff]

You mean like Evan Turner?

if Evan Turner was 6'10"+, with a 7'1 wingspan and better hops, then yeah

I'm not saying BS is bad nor Sauce is more than what he is.

If you look at Sauce, the game just favors shooters nowadays because it's tough to stop them from penetrating without the handcheck and need to stay close at them. Sauce is not quick nor has star level handles but he can get fairly get to the paint. CJ also is a good example.

If you bulldoze and force your way into the paint. You force the contact and the refs might allow more physical play and might lead to less foul calls.

If you watch the Cavs and Bucks operate with LBJ or Giannis, to some extent even the limited games BS played in SL. Giannis, LBJ and BS would back his defender down until they close to them making the screen more effective.

Ben Simmons can get his shot off any time he wants from 15 feet. If we're gonna take baby steps with his shooting, shooting from 15 feet out is where he needs to start, literally anywhere near the foul line and it's radius imo

But it's also kinda interesting that BB mentioned recently that Simmons won't be focusing on shooting 3's in the summer but his top priority will be to improve on getting to the basket and being able to score on contact at the rim.

[LongLiveHinkie]

They said he was very good but had distinctly better seasons before the injury. The basic advanced stats had him as maybe the 25th best player this year, used to be more like 8th or 10th a few years back. Pretty sure that's what ppl were saying about him during trade talks. (I would also hold off on gloating about this being the 'real Paul George' since he shot 6/8 on 3s the other day and that's obviously not who he is as a shooter. He had a really good game, but we'll have to see the rest of his postseason to know what he can do when going all out these days.)

If advanced stats said he's the 25th best in the league, then it's laughable. Anyone who knows even s tiny bit about the game knows George is way better than that.

Just want to point out Zach Lowe's all NBA votes. George doesn't make any of the teams. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19144926/zach-lowe-picks-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-2016-17
That's one person's opinion but most people don't expect George to make an all NBA team this season. Like you and others have said, maybe when he's really trying he's better and he's just slacked off this season. That's possible. But as far as his regular season has gone, he wasn't a top 20 player.

Yes, he was. Just stop being ridiculous now.. please.

[76ciology]

if Evan Turner was 6'10"+, with a 7'1 wingspan and better hops, then yeah

I'm not saying BS is bad nor Sauce is more than what he is.

If you look at Sauce, the game just favors shooters nowadays because it's tough to stop them from penetrating without the handcheck and need to stay close at them. Sauce is not quick nor has star level handles but he can get fairly get to the paint. CJ also is a good example.

If you bulldoze and force your way into the paint. You force the contact and the refs might allow more physical play and might lead to less foul calls.

If you watch the Cavs and Bucks operate with LBJ or Giannis, to some extent even the limited games BS played in SL. Giannis, LBJ and BS would back his defender down until they close to them making the screen more effective.

Ben Simmons can get his shot off any time he wants from 15 feet. If we're gonna take baby steps with his shooting, shooting from 15 feet out is where he needs to start, literally anywhere near the foul line and it's radius imo

But it's also kinda interesting that BB mentioned recently that Simmons won't be focusing on shooting 3's in the summer but his top priority will be to improve on getting to the basket and being able to score on contact at the rim.

Yup. Interesting in a way that it scares me that maybe they aren't optimistic with his jumper but I hope I'm wrong for I'm heavily rooting for Ben Simmons' to be great for the team. Hell, I even bought his jersey to wear whenever I'm having an off day with my shooting truth.

That said I also think it would be interesting to see how teams would react in guarding Ben Simmons. A lot of possibility. But then coaches may just simplify it by letting him be guarded single coverage by a guy like Andre Roberson and living with it and not letting their D collapse that can lead to open 3s.

If BS is screened by the guy being guarded by opposing PGs, I expect that screener to pop for open 3. If opponents switch then I expect Simmons to pound it down low. Most of these PGs are defensive liabilities that Simmons can abuse with.

[Ericb5]

I agree with the strategy of having him focus on his finishing ability with either hand over his ability to shoot threes. They are both weaknesses, but he doesn't need to shoot 3's to be a superstar.

Ultimately, this team runs through Embiid, so any discussion of how teams will defend Simmons really is secondary to how we position ourselves in getting Embiid the ball in good spots. The days of just giving Embiid the ball and let him him force his way to the basket as an offensive strategy are gone. We need to now focus on setting him up properly to score more efficiently, and with less energy.

Simmons will dominate in transition from day one, and he will be our best post entry passer from day one. I would focus on him establishing himself in the league first as our primary ball handler and facilitator. Later we focus on him as a shooter.

I would task him with taking 3-4 jump shots a game in the 12-18 ft space, and let him just build up his confidence. A lot of his shooting issues are just confidence. It isn't that he can't do it. It's that he doesn't feel comfortable doing it.

The 3 point line is too far away from the basket to focus on for him next year.

[HotelVitale]

Just want to point out Zach Lowe's all NBA votes. George doesn't make any of the teams. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19144926/zach-lowe-picks-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-2016-17
That's one person's opinion but most people don't expect George to make an all NBA team this season. Like you and others have said, maybe when he's really trying he's better and he's just slacked off this season. That's possible. But as far as his regular season has gone, he wasn't a top 20 player.

Yes, he was. Just stop being ridiculous now.. please.

I don't get your position. I'm not strongly pro- or anti-PG, but uf you haven't followed any of the conversation about George and haven't watched much of him, why is it 100% sufficient for you to make conclusions based on him being a) really good three years ago and b) having a really good game a few nights ago. From the PG trade threads I've learned that this year PG this year isn't driving as much as he used to and that his defense (esp on the perimeter) has fallen off quite a bit, and Indy fans will tell you the same. Like AI said, that could be because he was on cruise control throughout the regular season but either way it seems pretty indisputable that he hasn't been as good this year as previous ones.

Also doesn't seem remotely 'ridiculous' to me that there would be a bunch of guys that had better seasons that George did. Harden, Leonard, Westbrook, Lebron, Wall, Curry, KD, Draymond, CP3, Butler, AD, Giannis, IT, Blake, Lillard, Gasol, Gobert. All those guys are good enough to have a better season than PG in a down year.

[LongLiveHinkie]

Just want to point out Zach Lowe's all NBA votes. George doesn't make any of the teams. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/19144926/zach-lowe-picks-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-2016-17
That's one person's opinion but most people don't expect George to make an all NBA team this season. Like you and others have said, maybe when he's really trying he's better and he's just slacked off this season. That's possible. But as far as his regular season has gone, he wasn't a top 20 player.

Yes, he was. Just stop being ridiculous now.. please.

I don't get your position. I'm not strongly pro- or anti-PG, but uf you haven't followed any of the conversation about George and haven't watched much of him, why is it 100% sufficient for you to make conclusions based on him being a) really good three years ago and b) having a really good game a few nights ago. From the PG trade threads I've learned that this year PG this year isn't driving as much as he used to and that his defense (esp on the perimeter) has fallen off quite a bit, and Indy fans will tell you the same. Like AI said, that could be because he was on cruise control throughout the regular season but either way it seems pretty indisputable that he hasn't been as good this year as previous ones.

Also doesn't seem remotely 'ridiculous' to me that there would be a bunch of guys that had better seasons that George did. Harden, Leonard, Westbrook, Lebron, Wall, Curry, KD, Draymond, CP3, Butler, AD, Giannis, IT, Blake, Lillard, Gasol, Gobert. All those guys are good enough to have a better season than PG in a down year.

I've seen Paul George play about 40+ times this year. He looks absolutely fine to me. There were stretches where he looked off, but overall he ended up being fine, and I think he may just be frustrated with the situation out there. But I don't evaluate players on a year by year basis.

For example, if Jimmy Butler next season averages 35/10/10(to use an extreme example) then he may be having a better season than Steph Curry, but he is not a better player than Steph Curry. To me "being better" than another player is a privilege earned over time. How long is that time? It's arbitrary and a "you know it when you see it" kind of thing. if he were to keep those numbers up for 3-5 years, then sure I'd say ok Jimmy Butler is the best, but he'd have to do it, and everyone would know keeping up those numbers would be unlikely.

For Paul George to not be better than players X, Y, and Z, that has to be a regression earned over time. It certainly hasn't happened long enough to reach that point yet, and it's not as if he had some super bad season either. If you wanna say a bunch of players had better seasons than George... fine, whatever. To me that is totally meaningless and irrelevant. One standalone season does nothing for me. Any player in any sport can have an up or down year. What's important to me is what each player can do on the basketball court, and I'll take what George does on the court over most of those players. Numbers aside.

[76ciology]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/04/21/sports/basketball/nba-playoffs-james-harden-russell-westbrook.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur&_r=0

[Unbreakable99]

Look at this poll.

Read on Twitter

[CoreyGallagher]

Porzingis has shown stuff so the poll should at least be closer than it is, however if/when Simmons begins passing like he did in SL and getting triple doubles I think it becomes much tougher. We'll see.

Porzingis' season was disappointing though, he shot better, but didn't really make a leap, and I don't believe that fans realize he's about as poor of a rebounder as Okafor is.

[XtremeDunkz]

by the end of next year the Porzingis hype will be dead. I don't see him turning in to much more then what he is.

[sixerswillrule]

In my opinion Porzingis will be a bigger Cliff Robinson. Top 25-30 player, makes a few all-star games, but not a superstar.

[Unbreakable99]

Porzingis has shown stuff so the poll should at least be much closer than it is, however if/when Simmons begins passing like he did in SL and getting triple doubles I think it becomes much tougher. We'll see.

Porzingis' season was disappointing though, he shot better, but didn't really make a leap, and I don't believe that fans realize he's about as poor of a rebounder as Okafor is.

It shouldn't be close because Simmons is the better prospect. Too many people are afraid of the unknown. Just because Porzingis is good doesn't mean you make that trade. I'm happy that more people would not make that trade.

[Simmons25]

It's not like Porzingis put New York on his back and took them to the playoffs... so he is hardly a transcendent player that you'd give up a #1 pick for.. never mind someone with the potential of Simmons.

I'm sure a lot of people at the start of this year would have swapped Embiid with Porzingis... but I am sure they wouldn't now.

[76ciology]

A lot of these 20-25 year old players from John Doe to Porzingis' player development/future aren't certain. But right now I see KP as borderline/high end role player to weak star player. The lack of size and strength is going to limit his ability to be dominant and consistent. Nevertheless, what's certain is him being a plus player