{"id":27847,"date":"2021-09-25T12:34:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T16:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=27847"},"modified":"2021-09-25T12:35:33","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T16:35:33","slug":"ben-simmons-how-did-we-get-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2021\/09\/25\/ben-simmons-how-did-we-get-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Simmons: How did we get here?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexander Cohen<\/em><\/p>\n

Ben Simmons, a player who literally threw the Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 championship dreams away in the playoffs, is asking for a trade.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How does an NBA franchise point guard shoot 33% on free throws in the postseason and then act like his team is in the wrong for shopping him and telling him that he may not be a championship level-player?<\/span><\/p>\n

Superstars hold all the power in the NBA. The foolish choice was made to tell Ben Simmons he was one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ben Simmons was told he was an All-NBA, max-level talent. He failed to live up to those expectations of a talent like that this postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, he has never lived up to the qualifications of a superstar talent despite being dubbed one.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Rookie of the Year in 2018, he put up a lone point against the Boston Celtics. As an All-Star the following season, he was shut down by an assistant coach in Jared Dudley, which he followed up with three single-digit scoring games against the Raptors. As an All-NBA player, he was a literal no-show in the bubble with a knee injury as the Sixers got swept.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, he was crowned not just as a future star \u2013 with the incessant qualifier holy grail of \u201cif he develops a jumper\u201d \u2013 but as an active star.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simmons was considered a Defensive Player of the Year candidate and an all-defensive player despite never having even a top three defensive rating on his own team. He was oft-compared and even considered better than genuine MVP-candidate teammate Joel Embiid, despite all tangible evidence. Simmons was on the rise despite his numbers hardly evolving since his rookie year<\/span><\/p>\n

Why does Ben Simmons feel entitled? He was told he should be.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Simmons was vaulted as the next LeBron coming into the league, there were hardly any corrections made after abandoning his jumper post-Summer League.<\/span><\/p>\n

He exceeded the expectations set for him these playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

He put up a career best nine assists per 36 minutes in the playoffs. His +19.6 postseason on-off was finally comparable to Embiid and the best of his career (Dwight Howard\u2019s -20.5 was probably the real reason they lost). But he takes a page out of fellow Klutch Sports client LeBron James, making a pass leading to free throws and he hears four years worth of criticism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s too passive. Now, he can\u2019t be the point guard on a championship team, perhaps not a point guard at all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unwarranted? For the most part, no. But they were as warranted as a rookie as they are now, and outside of a few memes about shooting threes, Simmons never felt the pressure, only praise.<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s produced at the level expected of him his entire career, and now it\u2019s an issue deserving of public scrutiny? It is unsurprising he\u2019s miffed.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sixers aren\u2019t insane for wanting more than Malcolm Brogdon for their franchise star. They\u2019re just a year late to everyone finally realizing that Ben Simmons is Ben Simmons.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexander Cohen Ben Simmons, a player who literally threw the Philadelphia 76ers\u2019 championship dreams away in the playoffs, is asking for a trade.\u00a0 How does an NBA franchise point guard shoot 33% on free throws in the postseason and then act like his team is in the wrong for shopping him and telling him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17219,"featured_media":27848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1024,1032,1035,19],"tags":[1875,1389],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27849,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27847\/revisions\/27849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}