Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed on a five-year, $170 million dollar maximum contract. The deal was confirmed to The Athletic’s Shams Charania by SImmons’ agent Rich Paul.
After missing his first year, Simmons have shown to be an impactful player, winning Rookie-of-the-Year in 2017-18 and then building on that by making his first All-Star team in 2018-19, where he averaged 16.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 7.7 assists per game.
However the glaring hole in his game, his either inability or refusal to take and make any jump shots, has severely limited his impact in the postseason- it made him nearly unplayable at times last year against the Celtics and he was only putting up 11.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in the Sixers second round loss to the Raptors in this year’s playoff. As a matter of fact, in this past postseason, it was Jimmy Butler and not Simmons who had the ball in his hands in the critical moments of games.
If the Sixers are to really take the next step they seemed primed to make, then it will coincide with Simmons’ ability to perform one of the basic functions of basketball.
