Least Improved Player of the Year
If there was a Least Improved Player of the Year award, Ben Simmons would’ve been the front-runner for this prize. Sure, we can’t deny the fact that he had good numbers in this regular season, too, but improvement is about the positive difference between one season and another. His play style is similar to LeBron’s one, as guys around the NBA made this comparation since he was playing in college. But the issue is that he didn’t seem to develop his shot during the summer, so if he can’t penetrate and get a lay-up, his percentages on field goals that are 3-10 feet from the basket are somewhere at 42%, compared to the ones that are 0-3 feet away, where he is at 70%. Ben also take the majority of his FGA from that 0-3 feet zone. After the end of this regular season he averaged 16,9 PPG, 8,8 RPG, 7,7 APG while having a 56% FG percentage and 0% from three-point land, as he has a 0.1 3-point Field Goal Attempts Per Game. His free-throw percentage is also kind of low, at 60%.
The fact that he didn’t develop a jump shot yet is hurting the Sixers at the moment, because it makes much more easier for the opposing team to help on defense and switch, knowing that Simmons won’t take a shot, unless he drives on his left and finish with a lay-up. Also, he isn’t very effective with the pick-and-roll and that doesn’t help Joel Embiid, because when they switch the center on Simmons, they are literally begging him to take the shot by giving a lot of space, and that could be seen in the Game 1 of the playoffs this year. He drives hard and gets the ball to the elbow, and then he pass it outside because he can’t shoot not even mid-ranges to save his life. Not to mention that he doesn’t made a 3-point field-goal yet in his NBA career.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to imply that he is a bad player, not at all, but this is about the improvement of his skill set compared to the other season. We all know that in today’s NBA, more than ever, you need to have at least a mid-range jump shot to win, especially in the playoffs, so until he puts some hard work on that release, he will be a liability at times in the long playoff run which the Sixers want to have.
