The ROTY/Rookie Discussion Thread, Part III

[sfernald]

Have watched every Phily game this year.

I’d divide his rookie year into three stages. The first couple months he was putting up crazy stats but really didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Everything was new to him. At the peak I remember a Bill Simmons podcast where he declared that Simmons was already a top 20 player in the league. I thought he was getting a little ahead of himself.

Then he went through “his” rookie wall where he struggled a bit for a month or two.

Now the last couple months he has hurdled over that wall and the game has truly slowed down for him. We are seeing Lebron level confidence now. Every play is nearly spectacular and he is dominating in every way. It’s very arguable that he is a better player and more important to the team than even Embiid.

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

[Duke4life831]

Sixers deserve Simmons and Embiid and anything else good that comes there way. People don't realize (or care) how bad they've been before the Process. They haven't had a player like Simmons or Embiid since Iverson. One of the least interesting teams this past decade for sure. Glad things are finally changing for Philly.

THIS IS AWESOME

In all seriousness though. That dude got screwed over moreso than any other GM I can think of in any sport. The dude went in there and told the owners straight up what his plan was and they were cool with it. Then he gets fired for doing exactly what he said he was going to do (not only blaming Philly management, I know Silver played a role as well). Now his entire plan is working out exactly as he imagined but he was fired so he can't be apart of it. It's not just the big names like Embiid and Simmons. It's some of the role players as well, guys like Saric, Covington and TJ that were moved Hinkie did.

To keep on the Rookie subject though. Simmons has been unbelievable this year. Even if you consider him a 2nd year player, what he's doing as a 2nd year player is damn impressive.

[Sixerscan]

I dunno if the stats will show it but Simmons is currently going beserk

13 assists through three quarters is nuts. Can any Sixer fan tell me why his assist numbers have been so high lately compared to earlier in the year?

honestly the addition adding marco and ersan pumped up the spacing. Ben is use to nba defense now so hes taking more chances

Yeah this. Hes passing to better guys but also just understands NBA defense's better. Looks bored against these bad teams.

[Black Mage]

Sixers deserve Simmons and Embiid and anything else good that comes there way. People don't realize (or care) how bad they've been before the Process. They haven't had a player like Simmons or Embiid since Iverson. One of the least interesting teams this past decade for sure. Glad things are finally changing for Philly.

Even with Iverson, we only had 1 50 win season. We haven had anything like this since Dr J.

[nurseryc]

Have watched every Phily game this year.

I’d divide his rookie year into three stages. The first couple months he was putting up crazy stats but really didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Everything was new to him. At the peak I remember a Bill Simmons podcast where he declared that Simmons was already a top 20 player in the league. I thought he was getting a little ahead of himself.

Then he went through “his” rookie wall where he struggle a bit for a month or two.

Now the last couple months he has hurdled over that wall and the game has truly slowed down for him. We are seeing Lebron level confidence now. Every play is nearly spectacular and he is dominating in every way. It’s very arguable that he is a better player and more important to the team than even Embiid.

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

This

[SkyHookFTW]

Geez, Simmons...owns Howard a few times down low, and saw minutes at center today. He make difficult passes look elementary. Other than having a consistent outside shot, is there anything he can't do on the floor? No Embiid, no Saric today and he ran the team like a five year vet. How is he not the RoY???

[Sasashi]

Simmons will probably never be a good shooter but if he gets a more refined post game he’ll be unguardable.

Ben Simmons doesn’t need a good outside shot....he needs an AVERAGE one. Hell i can even settle for slightly below average. Simmons’ game with a slightly below average outside shot will not only make him a perennial all star, but a perennial MVP candidate.

EDIT: looks like another poster said this exact same thing on the previous page. Beat me to it.

On another note, during last year’s training camp before Simmons’ foot injury, Embiid said that Simmons was consistently the best player on the court , Embiid included. Looks like Embiid knows what he’s talking about.

[Madhouse]

Sixers deserve Simmons and Embiid and anything else good that comes there way. People don't realize (or care) how bad they've been before the Process. They haven't had a player like Simmons or Embiid since Iverson. One of the least interesting teams this past decade for sure. Glad things are finally changing for Philly.

So you don't mind 76ers winning the lottery with the Lakers pick?

[sixerswillrule]

Sixers deserve Simmons and Embiid and anything else good that comes there way. People don't realize (or care) how bad they've been before the Process. They haven't had a player like Simmons or Embiid since Iverson. One of the least interesting teams this past decade for sure. Glad things are finally changing for Philly.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1268999&start=45#p36815034

[Dame Lizard]

Can we now stop debating who should win RoY?

Number 1 and Number 2 is sorted.

[sixerhp3]

Geez, Simmons...owns Howard a few times down low, and saw minutes at center today. He make difficult passes look elementary. Other than having a consistent outside shot, is there anything he can't do on the floor? No Embiid, no Saric today and he ran the team like a five year vet. How is he not the RoY???

Because Mitchell is having an awesome season and many people have a tendency to be contrarians.. Also many people don't even watch Simmons' games and assume his stats are padded when in fact he controls the whole Sixers offense and dominates on both sides.

Also the whole fact that he is "not a rookie" which will unfairly put bias into the voting process when he definitely qualifies based on the rules.

[commentatorer]

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

The only player you can challenge for GOAT is Michael Jordan.
You can challenge LeBron for a place in the top 10.

[76thBearCub]

Can we now stop debating who should win RoY?

Number 1 and Number 2 is sorted.

Yep it really shouldn't be hard at this point.

Sent from my [device_name] using [url]RealGM mobile app[/url]

[zimpy27]

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

The only player you can challenge for GOAT is Michael Jordan.
You can challenge LeBron for a place in the top 10.

Well it depends on who you think the GOAT is, people have their own opinions on that, it's never been undisputed.

[jangles86]

Simmons needs to be talked about for all nba team. He is the Sixers most consistent performer throughout the year and has turned this team into a top 3 seed!!!
Ben Simmons is incredible, in his last 5 games he’s avg 11/11/11 in 30 minutes. Ridiculous

[APettyJ]

In all seriousness though. That dude got screwed over moreso than any other GM I can think of in any sport. The dude went in there and told the owners straight up what his plan was and they were cool with it. Then he gets fired for doing exactly what he said he was going to do (not only blaming Philly management, I know Silver played a role as well). Now his entire plan is working out exactly as he imagined but he was fired so he can't be apart of it.

It's worse than that: he had an interview lunch with the two lead owners and laid out various paths to choose. They could maintain status quo and never compete because they had no cap and no picks, do a more traditional rebuild with an unknown end date (see, Lakers, Magic, Suns) or do the fire sale bottom of the hole rebuild they became infamous for. This was CHOSEN by those in charge. For this reason, Hinkie was not actually fired, as not all of the ownership group wanted him gone, or even to lose power. Bringing in Colangelo was a compromise, and Hinkie didn't like not having more control so he resigned. Wrote an epic 13-page resignation letter: http://espn.go.com/pdf/2016/0406/nba_hinkie_redact.pdf

[Jazztop]

THIS IS AWESOME

In all seriousness though. That dude got screwed over moreso than any other GM I can think of in any sport. The dude went in there and told the owners straight up what his plan was and they were cool with it. Then he gets fired for doing exactly what he said he was going to do (not only blaming Philly management, I know Silver played a role as well). Now his entire plan is working out exactly as he imagined but he was fired so he can't be apart of it. It's not just the big names like Embiid and Simmons. It's some of the role players as well, guys like Saric, Covington and TJ that were moved Hinkie did.

To keep on the Rookie subject though. Simmons has been unbelievable this year. Even if you consider him a 2nd year player, what he's doing as a 2nd year player is damn impressive.

I think he’s having the best year of any player drafted in 2016 by a considerable margin. I’d say Mitchell has too with the exception of Simmons.

[bebopdeluxe]

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

The only player you can challenge for GOAT is Michael Jordan.
You can challenge LeBron for a place in the top 10.

LOL challenging LBJ for “top 10”.

[spacemonkey]

Have watched every Phily game this year.

I’d divide his rookie year into three stages. The first couple months he was putting up crazy stats but really didn’t know what the hell he was doing. Everything was new to him. At the peak I remember a Bill Simmons podcast where he declared that Simmons was already a top 20 player in the league. I thought he was getting a little ahead of himself.

Then he went through “his” rookie wall where he struggled a bit for a month or two.

Now the last couple months he has hurdled over that wall and the game has truly slowed down for him. We are seeing Lebron level confidence now. Every play is nearly spectacular and he is dominating in every way. It’s very arguable that he is a better player and more important to the team than even Embiid.

Forget Roty, Simmons is a top 10 player at this point in his career. He is going to challenge Lebron for GOAT at this point. Clear as could be.

I've thought for a while that Simmons has a higher ceiling than Embiid because of how amazing his body is, and the IQ/vision which can't be taught or game planned against.

It will be harder and less likely for Simmons to reach that ceiling, though, if that makes any sense?

[QPR]

Did that inbounds play again where he throws it off the guy guarding the inbounds pass and gets a layup. The guy was born with a veteran's basketball mind.