Ben Simmons’ stock is supposedly slipping as he enters the 2016 NBA Draft, as the sure-fired No. 1 overall pick isn’t the guarantee he was once anointed.
Jonathan Givony of The Vertical of Yahoo! Sports wrote a piece Monday afternoon about how the LSU Tigers’ Ben Simmons’ No. 1 overall draft stock might be in peril. Simmons became increasingly frustrated with LSU in the back half of SEC play and his Tigers frankly stunk down the stretch in 2016.
Givony pointed to four key reasons that Simmons may not end up going No. 1 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft later on this summer: 1.) lack of competitiveness, 2.) “hollow” box scores, 3.) questions about his outside shot, and 4.) questions about his character.
These are all major concerns for a lottery-winning team to consider taking Simmons at No. 1 in the 2016 NBA Draft. Surely, his athleticism and ball-handling skills made up for his lack of a jump shooting game at the college level, but being a ball-dominant player that is reluctant to take a jumper doesn’t bode well at the professional level.
The lack of drive to win tough SEC road games that may have gotten the Tigers into the NCAA Tournament doesn’t seem promising for when Simmons has to play for a doormat team in 2016-17 as the rookie face of the franchise.
Defense wins championships in the NBA and Simmons frankly didn’t feel like playing a lick of it while he was in Baton Rouge. His teammates at both LSU and on the Australian National Team aren’t exactly bursting at the seam for how much respect they have for Simmons.
Givony writes that the other top-tier talent that will likely enter this draft in Duke’s Brandon Ingram is both 14 months younger than Simmons and projects as a better pure-shooter in the NBA. With a series of red flags beginning to surface about Simmons’ draft stock, he has reportedly hired LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports to represent him as he enters the Draft.
Even with Paul as his agent and high-end raw athleticism on his side, it seems like Simmons may not be the all-NBA talent people believed he was when he began his freshman season at LSU. With the concerns that Givony brings to light, Simmons just might end up being a good stats, bad team type of player in the NBA. That doesn’t bode well for a downtrodden franchise looking for a cornerstone to build a contender around going forward.
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