25-under-25: Ben Simmons at No. 5

Four years into his NBA career, Ben Simmons remains somewhat of an enigma. That’s what makes him so fascinating moving forward.

What is Ben Simmons? Is he a point guard? A power forward? A point forward? Does it matter?

What sounds like a philosophical quandary may go a long way toward determining whether the Philadelphia 76ers can succeed as currently constructed.

For the first three years of his career, Simmons largely served as the Sixers’ starting point guard. But as then-head coach Brett Brown noted in early July, that positional designation was born in part out of necessity.

“It’s not like Ben came in and we had Chris Paul on the team or Damian Lillard on the team,” Brown told reporters. “We were young, and really not that good, so it was my decision, ‘You take the ball. We’re going to make you the point guard.’ It’s not like there was an established point guard that he had to bump out.”

Simmons thrived as the Sixers’ primary playmaker, averaging 16.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 8.0 assists en route to two All-Star appearances. He’s one of only three players to average at least 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists over each of the past three seasons, joining LeBron James and Russell Westbrook.

Simmons’ elite passing vision and athleticism make him a matchup nightmare on offense, particularly in transition. However, his well-documented reluctance to attempt 3-pointers creates spacing issues at times, particularly when he plays alongside All-Star center Joel Embiid.

Heading into the 2019-20 season restart, Brown thus decided to shift Simmons off the ball and install second-year guard Shake Milton as the primary half-court playmaker.

“There’s nobody faster in the NBA,” Brown told reporters in mid-July in reference to Simmons. “And so to always have Ben have to have the ball and dribble it up against five guys after made baskets especially … to do that I think dilutes some of his potent weapons: speed.”

The Simmons off-ball experiment ended with a whimper, as he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the Sixers’ fourth seeding game. Embiid went on to average 30.0 points and 12.3 rebounds per game sans Simmons in the playoffs, but the Boston Celtics swept the Sixers in the first round.

Although the demoralizing playoff sweep led the Sixers to undergo some massive offseason changes, it also underscored Simmons’ importance to the team. Without his playmaking on offense and his versatility on defense, the Sixers proved no match for Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics’ endless wave of wings.

So what role will Ben Simmons fill for the 76ers this season?

Questions about fit will hover over Simmons and Embiid until they win a championship together, but new team president Daryl Morey doesn’t appear deterred. Rather than give into the temptation to break apart his All-Star duo, he instead shipped out Al Horford and Josh Richardson on the night of the 2020 NBA draft and brought in Danny Green and Seth Curry to better complement them.

“Having a truly gravity-elite shooter really changes the dynamic for Ben and Joel,” Morey told reporters after the draft. “… When Joel and Ben have had that, it’s actually insane how good those lineups and how good those teams played.”

During the 2017-18 season, the Sixers outscored opponents by a mammoth 17.2 points per 100 possessions when Simmons and Embiid shared the court with J.J. Redick, according to Cleaning the Glass. In the 599 possessions during which Redick was off the floor but streaky shooter Robert Covington was on with Simmons and Embiid, the Sixers had a scorching plus-19.8 net rating.

If their offseason moves are any indication, the Sixers appear to be going all-in on the “Simmons + Embiid + shooters” formula. Curry, Green and Tobias Harris figure to flank that duo in their starting lineup, while Milton and Furkan Korkmaz will provide additional long-range bombing off the bench.

Although the Sixers have added shooters this offseason, they don’t have a single traditional point guard on their roster at the moment. While new head coach Doc Rivers has yet to confirm as much, it appears as though Simmons will go back to being the team’s primary playmaker in 2020-21.

That’s going to put a glaring spotlight right back on his reluctance to shoot.

Simmons has attempted only 24 career 3-pointers since he made his NBA debut in 2017-18, and he didn’t hit one until this past season. Brown pleaded with him to begin launching at least one per game after he knocked down his second career triple in early December, but he took only two more across his final 36 games last year.

The relentless focus on Simmons’ jump shooting tends to overshadow everything else he brings to the table. He’s one of the league’s most versatile defenders, as evidenced by his first-team All-Defensive nod from this past season. He’s also among the league leaders in 3-pointers created by assists. The threat of his drives creates plenty of kick out opportunities, and he routinely keeps his head on a swivel to find open teammates.

Even without a reliable 3-pointer of his own, Simmons has cemented himself as an annual fixture in the All-Star Game and one of the NBA’s top 20 players. However, he’ll eventually need to add a long-range shot to vault into the MVP race and put the Sixers into title contention.

No one should expect Simmons to turn into a long-lost Splash Brother overnight. Steady improvement as a 3-point shooter would be a welcome development in 2020-21, but that isn’t the only area in which he needs to improve for the Sixers to reach their ceiling.

Simmons has gotten slightly better from the free-throw line, going from 56.0 percent on 4.2 attempts per game as a rookie to 62.1 percent on 5.2 attempts per game this past season. Bumping his efficiency up into the 70s is just as imperative as his development as a long-range shooter. The same goes for his finishing on drives to the basket.

Rivers’ experience coaching versatile bigs and forwards such as Kevin Garnett and Blake Griffin could make him well-equipped to help Simmons reach new heights. Rather than pigeonhole him into one specific role, he should give Simmons the flexibility to play both on and off ball on offense and defend a range of positions. His versatility and athleticism are two of his calling cards. The Sixers need to figure out how best to take advantage of them.

Despite all he’s accomplished over the past few seasons, Simmons has plenty to prove heading into the 2020-21 season. How he meshes with Embiid and the Sixers’ new-look supporting cast under Rivers will go a long way toward determining whether they’re legitimate title contenders or a second-round knockout waiting to happen.