Menu Close

Recap: Ben Simmons’ Fourth Summer League Game against the Bulls

Adrian Fedkiw|

Philadelphia 76ers head coach Brett Brown definitely got in Ben Simmons’ ear following Saturday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Simmons made it an emphasis to shoot the ball on Sunday night, netting 18 points on 7-of-13 from the floor as the Sixers fell to the Bulls 83-70 in his fourth Summer League game.

The No. 1 overall pick strayed away from the facilitating he showcased over his first three games and it was delighting to see. It’s the Summer League, this is the type of stuff you work on in these types of games, step away from your comfort zone. Instead, he showed more aggressiveness taking the ball to the rim and confidence in his jumper, which was almost nonexistent over the first trio of games.

He was just 7-of-25 from the field heading into Sunday night’s game.

As Simmons grows as a player, I believe he’ll find that balance between being a passer and knowing when to take over a game. Here’s the video of Brown speaking about Simmons’ jumper during Saturday night’s game.

Now let’s take a look at some of Simmons’ highlights.

ESPN showed a halftime montage of all of Simmons’ shot attempts. Four were jumpers and one was a drive to the basket. Although he only potted one of those four shots, the form look clean, he looked balanced, had good arc and released the ball with confidence.

While most of his misses looked on line, he did airball a left wing jumper where he didn’t quite bend the knees.

I’ve yet to witness Simmons miss on a drive where he gets a huge head of steam and I love the touch he possesses with his off-hand.

Simmons showcased his aggressiveness in taking the ball to the tin in the final frame. On this play, he fakes the pass with the right hand, sweeps through and with his quick first step easily got past Brandon Davies before dunking the ball home.

And here’s another take from Simmons, quickly getting the step driving the left baseline and finishing with the right-handed reverse.

After the confidence grew with those driving baskets, Simmons backed down from the high left post and sunk a jumper from the foul line. Smooth and balanced.

Simmons confidently drains a left wing jumper with a defender sagging off of him. We definitely didn’t see this lack of hesitation over his first three games. If a defender lays off of him, he can’t be afraid to release the jumper and make them pay. Then when he gets defended closer, he can use his dangerous first step to get by that defender.

In the end, Simmons’ plus-minus rating was 11 in the red and honestly, he had more of an impact on the game when he was unselfish and getting other teammates involved. But that’s not what Sunday night was about. Again like I stated above, he needs to find that balance between being selfish and unselfish. That’ll come with time, he’s only going to be 20 when the season starts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.