Is Ben Simmons simply not talented enough to warrant the hype he's received?

[kuclas]

He’s got a confidence issue. Remember this dude is legit 6 9.5 without shoes. Meaning he’s 6 11 speed train going full speed with above average handles and elite jumping (used to be elite).

He simply didn’t need to shoot the ball. Just dominant with his physical skills. Put backs dunks layups can get him 18-20 a night. But now he’s afraid to even do a reverse layup and attack the paint.

[cam24thomas]

Seems like you missed the point. He is very good at a lot of things, but the things he is very bad at take away from his overall impact. You can be really good at some things, win awards and lead the league in categories, while still having underwhelming impact if you are really bad at other things on the court.

I think he's only bad at ONE thing - shooting.
Not saying he's great at everything else, but he's only "bad" at one thing.
I think his rebounding, defense and passing more than makes up for the shooting....

It does not make up for it. Very few players can get away with not scoring much because they were so talented in other areas. Rodman is a good example of this. Lockdown defense along with 15-20+ boards a night. If simmons was doing that, he wouldn't be hated on as much.

He's not Rodman though. He needs to score more.

His scoring is about twice as good as Rodman's scoring.

[cam24thomas]

Lmao you just have a laundry list of excuses for Simmons. Haven't you been telling us that he's been playing great this year, but now he's not?

Ben10Simmons no longer has the excuse that since he's playing with Durant and Irving, Simmons isn't needed to score the basketball at all anymore. The rest of the season for the nets, Simmons, and Ben10Simmons should be interesting in that respect.

lol

Bridges, Cam T, Cam J, Dinwiddie, Finny, Claxton all have more value than Simmons this year. I actually had faith and thought he'd do something this year, but he's cooked its over. He's like MCW, thought he'd be something after his rookie year but ended up as nothing.

The difference is, Ben's career is already full of awards, unlike MCW, plus Ben had back surgery and the recovery has not been smooth, plus a recent knee injury.

[Phreak50]

The difference is, Ben's career is already full of awards, unlike MCW, plus Ben had back surgery and the recovery has not been smooth, plus a recent knee injury.

Carter Williams won ROTY for what it's worth.

Point is, Simmons can't live off past achievement and any future potential.

Stop posting his 40 odd game against the Jazz, stop saying he assists on lots of threes, stop saying he has done this or could do that.

He is DONE.

He refuses to shoot, his man backs off him as if he has a contagious disease and can play passing lanes, double players more and save energy if required.

He passes the ball at the top of the key and runs to the corner to hide.

Anyone can grab rebounds, anyone can rack up 6 or 7 assists when they keep swinging the ball to perimeter players.

He is a nothing player.

He has lots of skill and had even more potential.

It's now over.

He won't even ride benches like Okafor, MCW, and such.

[cam24thomas]

The difference is, Ben's career is already full of awards, unlike MCW, plus Ben had back surgery and the recovery has not been smooth, plus a recent knee injury.

Carter Williams won ROTY for what it's worth.

Point is, Simmons can't live off past achievement and any future potential.

Stop posting his 40 odd game against the Jazz, stop saying he assists on lots of threes, stop saying he has done this or could do that.

He is DONE.

He refuses to shoot, his man backs off him as if he has a contagious disease and can play passing lanes, double players more and save energy if required.

He passes the ball at the top of the key and runs to the corner to hide.

Anyone can grab rebounds, anyone can rack up 6 or 7 assists when they keep swinging the ball to perimeter players.

He is a nothing player.

He has lots of skill and had even more potential.

It's now over.

He won't even ride benches like Okafor, MCW, and such.

You are very impatient.

[monopoman]

When a player has seemed to make no efforts at improving and has regressed arguably since his rookie season. It's pretty easy to claim that he is done, crap many players get tossed into the useless category with less.

The only thing keeping him on the court is his good passing, defense, and athletic abilities. I have a feeling his next contract will be nowhere near a max unless he works on his short comings.

[cam24thomas]

When a player has seemed to make no efforts at improving and has regressed arguably since his rookie season. It's pretty easy to claim that he is done, crap many players get tossed into the useless category with less.

The only thing keeping him on the court is his good passing, defense, and athletic abilities. I have a feeling his next contract will be nowhere near a max unless he works on his short comings.

In Ben's last year (2020-21) he came 2nd in DPOY votes, and the year before that (2019-20) he made All-NBA 3rd Team.
So he's definitely improved since his rookie season (he didn't even make an All-Defensive team in 2017-18 or 2018-19), until his back injury last year, which he's since had surgery for.

[Bum Adebayo]

Ben Simmons is very talented, make no mistake about it. But he has one of the worst level of play/talent ratio in the history.
Shooting with the wrong hand since god knows when, shying away from contact because he is scared to shoot FT, not working hard to improve, regressing almost every year since entering in the league. This is not a talent issue. Dude doesn't care anymore he already got big money and is content floating around.
I'm tired of people thinking talent always translates on the court, absolutely not.

[monopoman]

When a player has seemed to make no efforts at improving and has regressed arguably since his rookie season. It's pretty easy to claim that he is done, crap many players get tossed into the useless category with less.

The only thing keeping him on the court is his good passing, defense, and athletic abilities. I have a feeling his next contract will be nowhere near a max unless he works on his short comings.

In Ben's last year (2020-21) he came 2nd in DPOY votes, and the year before that (2019-20) he made All-NBA 3rd Team.
So he's definitely improved since his rookie season (he didn't even make an All-Defensive team in 2017-18 or 2018-19), until his back injury last year, which he's since had surgery for.

Defensively he has improved the problem is he paid like a perennial all-star top 20 guy in the league. He is not that he is at best a damn good role player, without a outside shot that is what he is. **** in today's NBA shooting is the most important skill to have, the defense gets to cheat so much off a guy like Simmons who is 0 threat to shoot.

They can literally defend 4 other players as long as they don't give him a free line to the basket for an easy dunk or layup. Now him coming off the bench to play D against great players or something sure he would be good at that. A ball facilitator that is off the bench that doesn't have much offensive game but can play great D sounds like a great role player to me.

[cam24thomas]

When a player has seemed to make no efforts at improving and has regressed arguably since his rookie season. It's pretty easy to claim that he is done, crap many players get tossed into the useless category with less.

The only thing keeping him on the court is his good passing, defense, and athletic abilities. I have a feeling his next contract will be nowhere near a max unless he works on his short comings.

In Ben's last year (2020-21) he came 2nd in DPOY votes, and the year before that (2019-20) he made All-NBA 3rd Team.
So he's definitely improved since his rookie season (he didn't even make an All-Defensive team in 2017-18 or 2018-19), until his back injury last year, which he's since had surgery for.

Defensively he has improved the problem is he paid like a perennial all-star top 20 guy in the league. He is not that he is at best a damn good role player, without a outside shot that is what he is. **** in today's NBA shooting is the most important skill to have, the defense gets to cheat so much off a guy like Simmons who is 0 threat to shoot.

They can literally defend 4 other players as long as they don't give him a free line to the basket for an easy dunk or layup. Now him coming off the bench to play D against great players or something sure he would be good at that. A ball facilitator that is off the bench that doesn't have much offensive game but can play great D sounds like a great role player to me.

That's a good point, you are the first person I've seen mention that when posting about "4on5".

[Tottery]

I think he's only bad at ONE thing - shooting.
Not saying he's great at everything else, but he's only "bad" at one thing.
I think his rebounding, defense and passing more than makes up for the shooting....

It does not make up for it. Very few players can get away with not scoring much because they were so talented in other areas. Rodman is a good example of this. Lockdown defense along with 15-20+ boards a night. If simmons was doing that, he wouldn't be hated on as much.

He's not Rodman though. He needs to score more.

His scoring is about twice as good as Rodman's scoring.

That's not saying much since its still in single digits. Rodman would often get more than double the amount of rebounds Simmons would per game along with better defense, but I didn't really want to compare the two. Shouldn't have dropped Rodman as a comparison.

I'm not going to 100% throw in the towel on Simmons because who knows what can happen with a 26 year old who can play 10 more years, but he has been disappointing to say the least.

[Dupp]

No he’s extremely talented. His talent far outweighs his actual output.

His fragile mind is the issue.

[rocketsfan100]

His minutes are dropping faster then his productivity which is not a good sign as the coach has lost faith in him.

[One Last Shot]

He is talented enough, the problem is his determination and mental fortitude. Maybe in his contract year in 2025, we'll see the better version of Ben but not in the next 2 seasons.

[righterwriter]

He got paid and doesn't care. He is a waste of talent and a conman.

[Wilfried]

What is talent?

[Mavrelous]

People underrate how good of a defender Ben Simmons was, he's nowhere near that now, whether it's mental or physical decline, I'm not sure.
At any rate, he was never a franchise cornerstone or max talent.

[BostonCouchGM]

he was a dynamic talent. A 6'10" Magic Johnson but with defense. Even when he was actually playing well he was well short of what I thought he could become and it's 100% because he lacks heart and desire. Basketball isn't important to him. He's been a pampered diva surrounded by yes men his whole life who never had to face diversity. As soon as he had to he wilted. Because of who he is as a person he's a completely lost cause. No G.M. should ever want him on their team.

[Upperclass]

He was big and fast enough to put up good stats while playing alot of minutes, but he isn't talented enough offensively to play a meaningful role on a good team.. which is why he faded as soon as the Sixers started trending towards being a playoff team. Hes also lost much of the athleticism he had early on and is much more like late career Odom currently.

[Floody100]

It’s kind of crazy to think that at one stage he went from being talked about as a player you could potentially build your team around to win a championship to now being a role player off the bench for what is now a play-in team.