Ben Simmons played in a live basketball game on Friday night. This means that, at some point during the game, Simmons busted out a pass that makes no sense for a rookie who is nearly seven feet tall to be able to pull off.
Early on during Philadelphia’s final Summer League game of the year, one which pitted the Sixers against Miami, Simmons brought the ball up court and walked his defender into a screen from Shawn Long, an undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette. It was your standard pick and roll, as Simmons started dribbling to his left while Long rolled to the rim.
But both defenders on the play went with Simmons, which left Long’s path to the rim wide open. Simmons decided to make them pay for this, so he threw a behind the back bounce pass that split a pair of defenders and set Long up perfectly for an uncontested jam.
The most amazing thing about Simmons is that he manages to make these really difficult plays look so easy. This is a tough play to pull off – it requires perfect timing and, you know, the ability to throw an accurate behind the back bounce pass – and it’s a testament to how impressive of a prospect Simmons is that he can do it so nonchalantly.
This kind of play probably won’t happen as frequently once Simmons is playing against NBA-caliber competition. Well, at least you’d think that it won’t happen as frequently, but Simmons is capable of doing some really impressive stuff, so we’ll have to wait for his first NBA game to figure out if these passes will translate.
