Sixers assistant Sam Cassell dubbed ‘turnover whisperer’ for Ben Simmons
Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons has a history of turning the ball over at times. He has games in his career that will frustrate people at times due to his high amount of turnovers and he averages 3.5 in his career.
He is averaging 3.5 turnovers to begin the 2020-21 season, but he did only have one turnover in Wednesday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Simmons was terrific in the win being called brilliant by coach Doc Rivers and his work with assistant coach Sam Cassell has been helpful in the turnover department.
“I don’t have to because Sam destroys him on every time on every turnover,” said Rivers with a smile. “Even the one today (Wednesday), if you saw he was looking over at the bench because Sam literally lost his mind on it. So Sam is the turnover whisper, I guess right now because he’s all over Ben about it.”
It is important that Simmons continues to keep the turnover number down. The Sixers need to be able to take care of the ball and they need to be able to follow his lead in that department.
“Sam has been on my ass and that’s a good thing,” Simmons added with a laugh. “I’m a point guard. I’m gonna have the ball in my hands a lot of the time so I gotta take care of it. We try to make sure teams don’t have fast breaks in that certain turnover. As long as I take care of the ball and lower my turnovers, find my guys, and have high assists, I think we’ll be alright.”
He is still juggling being able to score the basketball while also holding back and getting his teammates involved, but once he gets that down pat, he and the team should thrive. It is important that he leads
“It’s important for us, especially down the stretch,” Rivers added. “The only thing that bugged me in the whole game I thought, as a whole, we went through the second quarter with wasted possessions, other than that I thought we played pretty well.”
It’s an ongoing process that will continue to have to be played out as the season goes on. He will have another chance to improve on Friday when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
