Another season, another disappointing end for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Following the Sixers’ 103-96 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 7 of their playoff series on Sunday, Philadelphia will go into the offseason feeling more insecure than confident after a season in which they entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
Despite finishing the 2020-21 season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time in 20 years and a year in which Joel Embiid finished as the runner-up in MVP voting, the Sixers will enter the offseason knowing their true weakness — the lack of a legitimate second option.
Which means this — moving on from former No. 1 overall pick Ben Simmons.
Despite a nagging knee injury, Embiid more than did his part in this semifinal playoff series against the Hawks. The 27-year-old averaged 30.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game.
However, what did not happen is Simmons — Embiid’s running mate and former All-Star point guard — stepping up to support him in the Sixers’ biggest playoff series during the Embiid/Simmons era.
When the moment shone brightest, Simmons shrunk — and was nowhere to be found. For the series, the former No. 1 overall pick averaged 9.9 points per game. More importantly, he scored five points in Game 7 and took a total of four shots when the team needed him most.
His lack of aggressiveness in the most important game of the series can be summed up on this one play towards the end of the game with the team trailing by two points.
Instead of converting on an open dunk, Simmons instead passed the ball to Matisse Thybulle — the team’s sixth or seventh offensive option. Thybulle would go on to miss one of the two free throws.
This is not the type of play that championship playmakers make — they seize the moment. They don’t pass up the moment due to a lack of confidence in their own scoring skills or due to their lack of faith in their own free-throw shooting abilities.
This is something that Simmons seems to struggle with — not surprising considering his .340 free-throw shooting percentage for the series or his .613 percentage from the charity stripe for the season — and that lack of confidence in his own abilities seems to extend to Embiid and the Sixers’ own head coach in Doc Rivers.
Embiid made reference to Simmons passing up the open dunk in his postgame comments.
"I mean, I'll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we — I don't know how to say it — but I thought the turning point was just we had an open shot and we made one free throw and we missed the other and then they came down and scored," he said, referencing Simmons' pass to Harris.
"We didn't get a good possession on the other end and Trae came back and he made a 3 and then from there down four, it's on me.
"I turned the ball over and tried to make something happen from the perimeter. But I thought that was the turning point."
And then to add further insult, Rivers did not echo a vote of confidence for Simmons — if anything, he added more doubt to whether or not Simmons can be a championship point guard.
For perspective, Simmons took just three field goal attempts in the fourth quarter of this seven-game series. That’s not a guy that’s just missing shots — that’s a guy selective with his shots because he doesn’t have any confidence in his own shooting abilities.
Simmons has four years left on his deal and it’ll be a hard contract to move — he’s due to earn between $33 million and $40 million in those seasons.
This playoff series undoubtedly hurt Simmons’ trade value. But the bottom line is this — he’s young (not even 25 yet), is 6-foot-10 and is a tremendous playmaker and defender with All-NBA, All-Star and All-Defensive selections under his belt.
In other words, there should be a market for him if Philadelphia opts to go that route.
But all of those accolades can’t disguise the fact that Simmons is not a top option on a championship-contending team.
Before it’s too late, the Sixers need to realize that.
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June 21, 2021 at 01:59PM
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Philadelphia 76ers Need To Find Legitimate Second Option — And It’s Not Ben Simmons - Forbes
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