Could Ben Simmons be 76ers' odd man out with Jimmy Butler on the floor?
Spacing the Floor: Part I | Tobias Harris leading surprising Clippers
PHILADELPHIA — The term “Big Three” has become the easiest catchphrase for teams hoping to vault themselves into contention, but with every talented trio there’s usually one player who has to make the biggest adjustment of the group.
Jimmy Butler’s arrival in Philadelphia has put that concept back into focus as he joins Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons as the man expected to make the late-game decisions for a team in desperate need of a closer.
Early returns — and perhaps a bit of common sense — suggest Simmons will have to alter his game the most as close games wind down. But Simmons is in a different position than, say, Kevin Love or Chris Bosh or even Klay Thompson in multiple-star alignments.
Love and Bosh had to adjust to a ball-dominant LeBron James, while also complementing supplementary stars Dwyane Wade and Kyrie Irving, thus changing their games for a full 48-minute ride.
Bosh became a critical defensive point man for those switch-heavy Miami Heat teams, able to cover baseline to baseline while being quick enough to trap pick-n-rolls for Erik Spoelstra’s aggressive defense. Love was a valuable floor spacer, shooter and rebounder in James’ second stint in Cleveland.
Bosh and Love were primary scorers in their previous basketball lives.
Unlike those two, Simmons is a point guard for the better part of three quarters. But in the last 12 minutes, one would think his role will change dramatically to allow Butler the space he needs to maximize his fourth-quarter impact.
Going from facilitator and part-time attacker to wallflower?
The Celtics showed the blueprint to slowing Simmons last spring, daring Simmons to do anything outside the paint, and so far, the rest of the league has followed suit. Not only is Simmons unreliable as a jump shooter, it’s a surprise to see him taking a jumper longer than 10 feet.
You can often hear encouragement from the Wells Fargo Center crowd when it appears Simmons wants to take a 15-footer — and encouragement is not what Philadelphia is known for.
Simmons made a couple of key plays in the 76ers’ win over the Utah Jazz on Friday night in Butler’s home debut, seizing the lane and getting a layup for a 3-point opportunity, followed by finding a cutting Butler on an inbounds pass that essentially put the game away.
Simmons admitted it’s going to be different for him in the interim, but is saying and doing the right things through the adjustment period.
“Mentally it’s been, at times, frustrating because you don’t know what the team wants or needs from you,” Simmons said Friday night. “We have Jimmy in here, it’s kind of settling down to where we know what guys need to do on the floor, what their roles are.”
The next night, Butler hit the game-winner in overtime in Charlotte, cementing his role as the player who deserves to have the ball late.
It doesn’t mean Simmons can’t be effective late, it just means his role will change as the game progresses, and on its face, it seems harder to stay aggressive when deficiencies become more heightened in the last six minutes.
Giannis Antetokounmpo will not be confused for a long-range shooter at this stage of his career, but his relentlessness and otherworldly length make him a tough cover from any point on the floor. Simmons, while not at Antetokounmpo’s level of freakishness, is no slouch of a physical specimen but he has similar flaws. He just hasn’t tapped into his comfort zone yet, and adding Butler makes that even trickier.
If the 76ers are playing four-on-five late, can they afford to keep Simmons on the floor? It’s not as if they have a lot of options either, as the Markelle Fultz situation gets more and more confusing by the day, and the front office has yet to fill the holes left by Dario Saric and Robert Covington from the Butler deal.
Butler won’t ruffle feathers for obvious reasons, but he knows why he was brought in. It’s a tough task for coach Brett Brown to manipulate the pieces he has without alienating a young and growing star who needs to feel confidence.
But as it’s clear that Simmons has severe allergies to perimeter shooting, it’s just as obvious he’s the odd man out until his game matures.
Buzzer-beaters
1. Boston’s Kyrie Irving was miffed Denver’s Jamal Murray took a meaningless three in the effort to get 50 on Nov. 5. LeBron took one — and hit it — against Miami, his former team, to give him 51. Coincidence or petty? Bet on petty. Every. Single. Time.
2. When the ever-astute Bradley Beal reportedly says, “It starts at the top,” aiming in the direction of Wizards general manager Ernie Grunfeld following an emotional, vulgar and heated Washington Wizards practice recently, everyone can see why I just called him “astute.”
3. Good for Dwyane Wade. Not just on the arrival of his daughter, Kaavia James Union Wade, but on him taking the time off to enjoy and help his family adjust. Usually players take a day or so. Perhaps Wade is setting a new standard for fathers here?
4. For the uninitiated, ham over turkey. Every time. Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
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