76ers HC Sees Ben Simmons as a Legit PG

[ItsThatEasy]

Lakers fan here but I love Simmons' game.

Brett Brown after Simmons' Summer League debut:

"Everyone gets all twisted on what their version of a point guard is," Brown said. "When I say point guard I mean point guard. You've got the ball. You could call him Isiah Thomas, the old Isiah Thomas of my generation. You could call him Chris Paul. I mean point guard point guard. There are times I think that he can be a point guard. Not Draymond Green. Not LeBron. Not Lamar Odom. That's a point forward. I walk both lines at different moments. To start him off, we'll play him as a point forward."

After watching his summer league it's obvious he's a special talent.If he can run the offense full time by his 2nd or 3rd year while guarding SF's/PF's on defense he'd truly be a sight to see, which is something Philadelphia hasn't had in a while.

[sikma42]

He needs a lot of work. He pounds the air out of the ball at times and takes too long to get into sets. He is also pretty infatuated with make THE pass that leads to the assist instead of just making the best pass for the situation. I wouldn't call him a point guard, unless you are just going to call any lead primary wing playmaker a point guard.

[Mamba4Goat]

I haven't caught any Summer League games yet, but as a point guard, him or Giannis??

[Mad Balla 15]

Paul Silas originally said the same thing about Lebron when he was a rookie. In reality theres no way Simmons plays PG. He can play like a PG but they won't be starting him at PG.

[ItsThatEasy]

I haven't caught any Summer League games yet, but as a point guard, him or Giannis??

Actually running an offense? I'd take Simmons. Giannis is great but Simmons just looks like he was born to play PG and ended up being 6'10 240.

[kvash37]

Considering he is tremendous at rebounding, why would he be a point guard? He is a point forward.

[SK21209]

Seems fine, playing PG obviously doesn't mean you have to guard the opposing point guard. If you think about it, the biggest factor in what position you are is just height. If we started Green at SF and Kawhi at SG, nothing would change

[HeartBreakKid]

He's certainly a special talent at passing, but he doesn't have the handle or shooting ability to be a legitimate point guard.

He is not guarding any point guards either, which essentially means hes not a point guard.


To be fair, Magic Johnson should have been considered a point forward probably also, it's kind of arbitrary.

[HotelVitale]

I haven't caught any Summer League games yet, but as a point guard, him or Giannis??

Hard to compare. Giannis' vision is pretty blah, but he gets into the lane and he's so long he can pass over anyone. Simmons is a bangin passer but doesn't know how to play at full speed or within a system/flow now. I'd say as a pure point guard/forward, Simmons has much greater potential, but Giannis is a better general wrecking ball.

[Kurosawa0]

Makes sense to try it out. I think you want the ball in his hands 90% of the time anyway and he's never going to be a spot up shooter.

[Prez]

I haven't caught any Summer League games yet, but as a point guard, him or Giannis??

Hard to compare. Giannis' vision is pretty blah, but he gets into the lane and he's so long he can pass over anyone. Simmons is a bangin passer but doesn't know how to play at full speed or within a system/flow now. I'd say as a pure point guard/forward, Simmons has much greater potential, but Giannis is a better general wrecking ball.

This isn't true. He doesn't have that much experience in the role of point-forward as he only started doing it post-ASB this year, so he could use refinement as a pure playmaker, but his natural court vision is terrific.

[ItsThatEasy]

He's certainly a special talent at passing, but he doesn't have the handle or shooting ability to be a legitimate point guard.

He is not guarding any point guards either, which essentially means hes not a point guard.


To be fair, Magic Johnson should have been considered a point forward probably also, it's kind of arbitrary.

I wanted to hesitate on the Magic comp but it's really the most viable option here.

We're talking bringing the ball up court after a made basket by the other team, Simmons, LeBron and Magic are the only ones that immediately come to mind.

Even the prototypical "point forwards" operate from a specific area on the court or rebound and lead the break like Draymond and Blake Griffin.

If he's guarding 4's and 5's then I don't see the downside, it's not like PG's are going to be guarding him in return.

[ZeppelinPage]

I haven't caught any Summer League games yet, but as a point guard, him or Giannis??

Hard to compare. Giannis' vision is pretty blah, but he gets into the lane and he's so long he can pass over anyone. Simmons is a bangin passer but doesn't know how to play at full speed or within a system/flow now. I'd say as a pure point guard/forward, Simmons has much greater potential, but Giannis is a better general wrecking ball.

This isn't true. He doesn't have that much experience in the role of point-forward as he only started doing it post-ASB this year, so he could use refinement as a pure playmaker, but his natural court vision is terrific.

Yeah, he's had some pretty insane passes and sees the court very well, even before he was put at point-forward you could tell. But I suppose only Bucks fans who have watched all of his games the past few years would know this, if you watch a few games here and there and some highlight videos you're not going to fully see it.

[Unbreakable99]

Simmons has elite court vision and passing ability. Yes he can be the PG and run the offense. I don't care what position you put him at. You can say he's the Center. He can run a team and facilitate the offense.

[CoreyGallagher]

He needs a lot of work. He pounds the air out of the ball at times and takes too long to get into sets. He is also pretty infatuated with make THE pass that leads to the assist instead of just making the best pass for the situation. I wouldn't call him a point guard, unless you are just going to call any lead primary wing playmaker a point guard.

What makes you say that about his passing? He was the primary ball handler for LSU (in 62.3% of transition plays, 37.7% of time not in transition) and looked to pass the most in isolation (30.5% of time), post-up (34.9%) and pick-n-roll situations (63.5%) of the top picks - 2 of which are PG's. So, he passed a lot and while he assisted quite a bit they weren't gaudy numbers because I'm assuming he wasn't that infatuated with making THE pass that leads to an assist, he seems to make the necessary pass. We're eventually going to have enough sample for touch and pass stats in the NBA as well so we'll have more data to back up our opinions instead of just conjecture, but in college that didn't seem to be the case.

[sikma42]

He needs a lot of work. He pounds the air out of the ball at times and takes too long to get into sets. He is also pretty infatuated with make THE pass that leads to the assist instead of just making the best pass for the situation. I wouldn't call him a point guard, unless you are just going to call any lead primary wing playmaker a point guard.

What makes you say that about his passing? He was the primary ball handler for LSU (in 62.3% of transition plays, 37.7% of time not in transition) and looked to pass the most in isolation (30.5% of time), post-up (34.9%) and pick-n-roll situations of the top picks (63.5%) - 2 of which are PG's. So, he passed a lot and while he assisted quite a bit they weren't gaudy numbers because I'm assuming he wasn't that infatuated with making THE pass that leads to an assist, he seems to make the necessary passes. We're eventually going to have enough sample for touch and pass stats in the NBA as well so we'll have more data to back up our opinions instead of just conjecture, but in college that didn't seem to be the case.

all the stats that you put forward are irrelevant to my claims.

I think he is a good passer with great talent, but I think he needs to grow and those are some areas that will help (there are others that will come with time and experience). But yea, this is just my opinion on him.

[JimmerAllStar]

He's too weak minded to be a PG. He basically quit on the team when LSU said he needed to get his grades up. Rather than do whatever it takes, he folded like a fat chick on the 4th day of a diet.

[zeebneeb]

I'm tired of hearing this. Do it. Stop talking about it and do it. I have never understood why more teams after Magic Johnson don't try this. It creates mismatches all over the floor and makes a team insanely difficult to defend.

The Bucks better do it with the greek but with them picking up delly they are going to chicken out.

I would kill to have a 6'8-7'0 pg.

[Piecake]

That seems like it will be his best position. He needs the ball in his hands to maximize his value, and it is a lot more difficult for teams to sag off of a player and reduce spacing when that non-shooting player has the ball.

[Prez]

I'm tired of hearing this. Do it. Stop talking about it and do it. I have never understood why more teams after Magic Johnson don't try this. It creates mismatches all over the floor and makes a team insanely difficult to defend.

The Bucks better do it with the greek but with them picking up delly they are going to chicken out.

I would kill to have a 6'8-7'0 pg.

The whole point of signing Delly was to run Giannis as a point forward. You still need a guy out there who can guard the opposing point guard, and on offense can space the floor. Delly is just a 3&D guy slotted at the 1.