The Philadelphia 76ers are reportedly leaning heavily towards selecting Ben Simmons over Brandon Ingram with the no. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown has spoken on his connection to Simmons, having coached his father with the Melbourne Tigers, and now Brown is plenty fond of the 19-year-old who just finished one season at LSU.
Using names like Magic Johnson and LeBron James to describe a player’s game is the ultimate pedestal of basketball praise, which is exactly what Brown did on ESPN Radio’s Russillo and Kanell show on Wednesday:
“He’s got a hint of Magic. At times you can see, like, a younger LeBron, where you’re not sure what position he is. At one moment you think he’s a four, maybe he’s a three, he looks comfortable handling the ball. When you say what is your ‘identifiable NBA elite skill,’ most people will immediately go to passing.
“When you take that collection of comments and you add it into a 6-10 frame, the comparisons to those two players you know, could be a little bit reckless, could be a little bit ambitious. But there’s no denying that he comes to the draft with a very unique skill package.”
The most critical knock on Simmons’ game is his poor shooting. Frankly it could be the only weak point in his game. Brown isn’t too worried about that, referencing the thought process behind drafting Kawhi Leonard when he was with the Spurs.
“When you look at his form, no differently when we drafted Kawhi Leonard with the Spurs, one of the assessments we had to make was, is his shot transferable to the NBA? Is it a total rebuild or is it a little bit of a makeover?
“And I think that his form isn’t one where you just have to blow it up and start over, I think it translates. Like LeBron, we saw over the ages, we saw his shot grow. The statistics people, the analytics people, all these point to it is one of the skills that is most easily fixed over time.
“And so, no (his shooting doesn’t concern me) is the long answer. I think we can avoid that and help him if he ends up being a Philadelphia 76er.”
Great passers have great feel for the game, and that feel is what likens Simmons most to the likes of Magic and LeBron, as farfetched a standard that may be for him right now. Watching Simmons pass the ball is a thing of beauty, and it’s that skill and feel that makes him a fit in just about any system if he’s given the opportunity to make plays. Philadelphia offers that kind of opportunity for Simmons, and with the kind of faith the head coach has in his game, it’s looking less likely that Simmons does not become a 76er on June 23.
