There are 47 players in NBA history with at least 1,000 free throw attempts and a free throw percentage of 60 percent or lower. There are 10 players in NBA history with at least 100 free throw attempts in the playoffs and a free throw percentage of 54 percent or lower. There are two players in NBA history with at least 50 free throw attempts in a single postseason and a free throw percentage of 35 percent or lower. There is only one player from the 2020-21 NBA season — regular or playoffs — that missed ten free throws in a game.
Ben Simmons fits all of those categories. And hacking Simmons, for those very reasons, makes a whole lot of sense.
If only Simmons was shooting 50 percent from the line, 76ers fans might be thankful. But he's converting at a 32.8 percent clip throughout the playoffs this year, often missing in crucial moments. He clanked four free throws in Game 4, a three-point loss. He missed the aforementioned and hard-to-believe ten shots from the foul line in Game 5, a three-point loss and a collapse of epic proportions. He shot a combined 26.3 percent in that pair of games. Again, just a 50 percent performance would have been huge.
Ironically, it was a ~50 percent performance back in 2017 that prompted then-rookie Simmons to address a team, the Washington Wizards, intentionally fouling him in an attempt to come back. He went to the line 29 times, knocking down 15 of them, and the Sixers held on to win by five points. But that wasn't satisfactory, apparently, and Simmons vowed that things would change.
Simmons added that he would step up and that he had "no fear of taking free throws."
Three-and-a-half years later, this video resurfaced (h/t Crossing Broad) and things had indeed changed... but not for the better. Hack-A-Ben very much still exists, and instead of going 15-for-29, he's going 4-for-14. And instead of holding on to the lead, the 76ers lost a huge lead. In 165 games prior to Wednesday night in which the 76ers held a 25-point lead, they were 165-0.
They're now 165-1.
What can Simmons do? What can the coaching staff, his teammates, his mental coaches and sports psychologists... what can anyone do? We even have fans trying to help.
Who knows. If you're of the same opinion as Stephen A. Smith, maybe there isn't anything we can do if Simmons doesn't take the reins himself.
"I think you just get Ben Simmons in the gym. I'm gonna put this out here: I think it's an issue of work ethic. I really, really do," Smith told John Clark. "I'm not calling him lazy. I'm not trying to cast any aspersions on his character. He's a good kid, you know, he cares, he goes out there and I think he's an elite player.
"But in the offseason, you can't tell me he's working on his jump shot. There's no way. When you won't even attempt them during the season, when you won't even attempt them when you're playing for this team, you're clearly not working on it enough. I don't give a damn what you're doing in the offseason, it's not enough."
This offseason will be an interesting one for Simmons if the 76ers can't find a way to turn the series around and beat the Hawks the next two nights. Heck, it might be a pretty interesting season for the 24-year-old regardless of how the remainder of the postseason unfolds. And if the rest of the way is anything like Games 4 and 5, it won't be a fun ride.
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