Truly baffles me anyone still wants him
Guy is a loser. Just wait until the Spring and playoffs, he'll probably get hurt or throw a tantrum at someone
Even with the Nets on a roll, I still think Kyrie and Simmons are gonna find a way to ruin it for them late in the year and during the playoffs.
Apparently he said he knows he needs to be more aggressive.
It was a statistical oddity given that Simmons became just the 18th player in NBA history to register at least 13 assists and not score a point.
"Probably found them too much," Simmons offered in a postgame assessment of his game, noting he was looking to pass too often to his teammates instead of going to the basket. "Probably need to get my own, get myself going, which I didn't."
But he barely looked at the rim for his own shot and even drew some boos in the fourth quarter from the Barclays Center crowd when he turned the ball over on a pass instead of driving all the way to the rim. So how does he think he can get his rhythm back now, especially without the offensive safety net that Durant and his 29.7 points per game regularly provide?
"Being assertive, being aggressive and knowing that my team needs that," a reflective Simmons said. "I think I'm giving the ball up way too many times when I know who I am, I know I need to get to the rim, get buckets. And that's also going to help my teammates get them going."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35436293/ben-simmons-nets-rare-stat-line-jacque-vaughn
Meanwhile, his coach (and teammates) have been twisting themselves into pretzels trying to explain how Simmons' being an offensive mushroom is not a negative for the team.
"I always look at it as what does the possession render?" Vaughn said. "And so I think he got guys shots throughout the course of the night. My thing is going to be on the defensive end with Ben, the impact that he has to have without Kevin on the floor ... Ben's got to be able to protect the rim.
"Ben's got to be able to be a force for us on the defensive end of the floor, so that we can play small, play three guards out there, so we can have shooting around. So we got to be more up to having force on the defensive end of the floor, and hopefully we can make some shots, that will help."
As far as shots go, Simmons, who is averaging 7.7 points a game this season, is now 10-for-23 in January and just 1-for-13 from the free throw line during December and January. The spotlight is going to get even brighter without Durant for the next few weeks.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35436293/ben-simmons-nets-rare-stat-line-jacque-vaughn
I guess if you looked at him as an old style 4 that defends multiple positions and can push the ball up and rebound and pass, he's certainly adding some value...but at $35m? Overpay. Especially his horrible (1-13!!) clip from the free throw line means he can't be on the court in any close game in the 4th since he might get hacked. And because he's afraid to get hacked he won't take the ball into contact because he's afraid of airballing the ball from the free throw line and looking bad. He's a role player that can only fill specific niches.
I get what you are saying, and you are correct that these are all people with real issues just like the rest of us. But his attitude, millionaire status dating models lifestyle coupled with his fashion shows on ig make it as hard for as possible to feel bad for the guy. Can’t someone just be a dope?
I think a lot of us would feel more sorry for him if we got the sense that he was actually trying to fix his issues...but from the outside looking in, he seems to be a guy that likes the high life that comes with making $35m a year and being a famous basketballer, dating celebrities while he's actually progressively got worse and worse at his actual job every year, and doesn't seem to make an effort to improve - he always has a reason (excuse) for why he hasn't been able to learn how to shoot. Even guys like Aron Baynes couldn't hit the side of a barn door when they got into the league but they worked and got better. Ben has literally not got better. That's really where the dislike comes from - you don't get the sense he's putting in 100% effort to be the best player he can be, which runs counter to what a lot of us expect in our athletes. I have a friend from Australia and he can't stand Simmons, because he is (apparently) the antithesis of what being an Australian sportsman is all about - putting in the effort, bleeding for your country, etc.
