The hope every offseason is that Ben Simmons would get in the gym, put in a ton of work and try to better himself in areas where he has come up short. Free throw shooting. Three-point shooting. Actually attempting three-point shots, whether or not they went in. Shooting from 10 feet, or 20 feet, or six feet or 30 feet. Shooting in a box, with a fox, in a house, with a mouse... perhaps there's a "Green Eggs and Ham" sequel in there somewhere.
"I do not like shooting the three, I won't do it, Daryl Morey."
So it was encouraging for fans to hear a report on Wednesday that Simmons is willing to put in the extra work to shoo— oh wait, I read that wrong. It turns out the report is that Simmons is willing to sit out the entire season if the Sixers are unable, or unwilling, to move him in a trade.
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Now that doesn't mean that Simmons won't be working his butt off in the meantime to try and eliminate his deficiencies on the court, but many believe that he never has, and he never will, because that's just the way he's perceived to be. If he were to really work on his shooting and evolve to become a stronger part of the 76ers system around Joel Embiid, all of this may not even be a story. But I digress.
One great shooter's take on Simmons is that everything that has happened in the past few months — including the playoff defeat to the Hawks, the constant trade buzz and the Philly fans' view of their polarizing point guard — shouldn't make him want to give up on getting better. No, says Ray Allen. All of this should be fuel to do the opposite.
"Ben is such a young player with such a huge upside," Allen said on "The Rich Eisen Show," available on Audacy. "The things I know about shooting... I remember a time when I couldn't shoot, so from that time until I got to college and then from there on, I understood what it was that I did going forward. That was to just work at it, just figure it out, so I covered every angle that I could on the court because I knew at some point there was going to be a position I was going to be in and I didn't want that to be a weakness.
"The things that have been said about Ben, the problems he had in the playoffs, it should sting enough from this summer — to hear about trade talk — to get him in a gym and just be working on it and kind of re-creating who he is, re-evolving into a different player. Because two years in, the league figures your game out, then they try and take away your strong suits.
"So he's got to start to evolve and adapt."
Will Simmons ever "evolve and adapt," as Allen says is what he must do to reach the next level? If he does, it certainly won't be in a 76ers uniform. And if he does elsewhere, it'll be all the more painful for those same 76ers fans.
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