Hangtime84 wrote:MGB8 wrote:Mark K wrote:
He's already one of the best creators for others in the entire league.
Let's see him play a regular season game first, before talking about how he's among the best at anything in the league.
Honestly, I'm a Simmons skeptic. He's a nice passer, but not necessarily that disciplined and I could see him turning the ball over lots, not making many of the passes we've seen, when facing NBA level pressure from opposing SFs (I think he'll generally be guarded by 3's - he doesn't have so much power to need a bigger guy guarding him, especially with a weak shot - and so you want to mitigate his quickness).
He's a great athlete and an excellent passer and ball handler for his size - but his size means that he doesn't have the short area quickness to "get wherever he wants with the ball" - especially without a credible outside shot. Maybe I'm wrong, but right now, I see Simmons as very over-hyped.
I watched 3 quarters before it became clearly unwatchable. Simmons was guarded by RHJ and problems getting past him and when he did very reluctant to shoot a easy floater....touchnarounf the rim needs improvement
Sixers did a lot sets where brings ball up passes to the wing. He goes straight to the post and he would typically playmake from there.
Simmons is at his best in transition in order to improve that side he gonna have to improve his motor and defensive awareness he looks real passive out there.
Yup. Notwithstanding Mark saying that he'll just abuse SFs when they are put on him, I don't see it. He has a size advantage - but not either the post game or the consistent shot to really make smaller defenders pay. So while he can pass out of the post - so what - if he can't score and pass, then that is completely reliant on good ball movement shaking the defense.
And, as I mentioned before, some - maybe a good number - of the passes that he can make in summer league / pre-season are simply not going to be there playing against regular season defenses (much less playoff defenses).
His build is strong, but not Lebron strong... which means you can put a reasonably strong 3 - a Crowder, an RHJ, an MKG or Winslow, a Jimmy Butler, a DeMarre Carroll, an Ariza, a PJ Tucker, a Stephenson etc. on him. Playing him with a Saric (who can be covered by a 4) makes that easier.
If the Sixers "play him at the 4" (i.e. "1"-Bayless/Fultz, "2" Redick, "3" Covington/TLC, "4" Simmons, "5" Embiid/Amir/Okafor) that might help in that if a team has a traditional 4 who can't defend decently in space, that could be a problem - they might have to adjust their lineup from their preferred lineup.
Could also see playing Simmons at the 5 with Saric at the 4 against a team not running out a big center that could exploit Simmons in the post (and there aren't that many any more) and if the loss of interior defense isn't too bad. That would allow the Sixers to play very fast.
