Playing buy or sell with 2019-20 NBA preseason trends
Ben Simmons is taking 3-pointers now
Aside from Zion’s all-out dominance, Ben Simmons taking — and making! — his first NBA 3-pointer was the biggest story of the preseason. Sure, it didn’t come in an actual regular season game, but watching a former coward confidently knock down a wide-open 3 sent the home crowd (and NBA Twitter) into a frenzy.
Ben Simmons pulls up from way beyond the arc! #NBAPreseason pic.twitter.com/dg5v9WUZdL
— NBA (@NBA) October 9, 2019
Simmons wasn’t the only former non-shooter to can a 3-pointer in these exhibition games. Steven Adams knocked down a corner 3 on the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first possession of the preseason. Boban Marjanovic answered Adams in the same game with one of his own, and even JaVale McGee got in on the fun.
But unlike those fun flukes, Simmons will need to shoot 3s this season. The Philadelphia 76ers have Josh Richardson and Al Horford to spread the floor, but will sorely miss J.J. Redick in that respect, especially if Joel Embiid can’t improve his 3-point stroke or Tobias Harris doesn’t get back to his pre-Sixers efficiency from deep.
This season, Simmons will be taking 3s. He probably, definitely won’t make 100 percent of them, or even 35 percent of them. But even with just one long range attempt to his name over three preseason contests, and with even that lone attempt coming against a non-NBA team, this season will finally see Ben Simmons regularly hoist from beyond the arc.