I don't think Ben Simmons has regressed. I believe his stats are down due to the makeup of his team. More hands to feed on offense and more rebounders competing for boards.
Philly are outrebounding teams by 7 boards a game so far this season after out-rebounding teams by 4 last year. This makes sense. They have phenomenal size. Embiid and Horford together. Then Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons on the wings (both PF size players). Then Josh Richardson (SG size) at PG.
Simmons' assists are down a bit from 7.9 to 6.6 but part of that is down to their bad shooting to start the season. Another part due to their dodgy spacing (team makeup). And another part due to having so many hands to feed. All 5 starters are quality offensive players who need to touch the ball and be involved in the offense. It is more of a shared load now than before. Same with Simmons' points per game.
I don't think those stats (ppg, rpg, apg) show regression. It is more about the team that they have now and how that group operates. More size. More rebounders. More perimeter defensive assignments for Simmons. More hands to feed on offense. More of a shared load. Dominant defensive group with dodgy spacing limiting their offense.
Does this argument hold true for all his advanced stats too? It looks like all of his advanced stats are down also... also I am not necessarily sure I buy the more mouths to feed argument. JJ Reddick shot 13.5 times a game last year and so did Jimmy in his time in Philly that is about 26-27 shots freed up every game (this is almost exactly what Horford and Richardson are going for) . On top of that Embid has missed 4 games so far of 11 (Horford also skipped one) so he has definitely had times to shine and some games with even more opportunity. Seems like just kind of a blind defense of simmons with no substance.... he has been bad compared to last year.
Some advanced stats like wins shares and PER would be greatly effected by this, yes. I don't know about some other stuff like box +/- (I don't think that one should be effected).
His offensive rating and defensive rating are both down. Also curious why you think Horford and Richardson are more mouths to feed than reddick and butler?
Defensive rating on basketball reference? Defensive rebounding plays a big role in that. Offensive rating would be effected too by lower assists and reduced scoring.
Yeah, I have been thinking about what you wrote - that was a good point, Horford & Richardson vs Jimmy B and Redick - I am not sure what to think about that.
When I wrote my initial comment, I was thinking mostly of the team Philly was before the trades. When Ben Simmons had more free reign.
Tobias Harris only played a small portion of the season with them last year after arriving at the trade deadline (1/3rd of season). Jimmy Butler played 2/3rds of the season.
I was interested in what Simmons numbers were after the trade deadline so I looked them up and they were very good. Similar to his numbers prior to the trade deadline. Then I looked at his numbers in the playoffs and his numbers are similar to what they are this season. Not sure what that means.
That Philly team post trade deadline had same issue at this year's team = lots of hands to feed and not enough touches / shots to go around. Some guys had to sacrifice last year. They will this year too.
Topic: NBA 2019-2020 season thread (Read 400472 times)