It’s widely believed that once Ben Simmons starts hitting jumpers, he’s going to be absolutely terrifying. The issue is there’s no guarantee Simmons ever gets to that point, as his lack of a jump shot was a liability at times for the Philadelphia 76ers over the course of his rookie campaign.
Simmons attempted 11 threes this season and missed all of them, partly because eight of them were end of quarter heaves. He pulled up from downtown one time during the postseason and, unsurprisingly, missed. While Simmons is a 6’10 point guard and can score in other ways, unlocking a jumper that keeps defenses honest is something that he and the Sixers need to take a step forward.
Kobe Bryant advised that Simmons more or less starts over and gets himself a new jumper. Simmons, on the other hand, thinks he’s closer than we might think. One day after the Sixers were bounced from the postseason by the Boston Celtics, Simmons told the media that he has no plans for a complete overhaul of his jumper this offseason.
Ben Simmons, on whether he's thinking of changing his shot. "Minor things. But changing the whole shot, no."
— Derek Bodner (@DerekBodnerNBA) May 10, 2018
Simmons didn’t dive into any specific little tweaks that he needs to fix, but his apparent hope is that these little fixes lead to big change. The hope would be that he has a ton of room to grow as a shooter, so any steps forward would help. In addition to his exploits from three, Simmons shot a paltry 56 percent from the free throw line. With his size and ability to get to the rim, Simmons can be the kind of player who absorbs contact and gets to the line rather easily, but as long as he makes just over half of his free throws, it’s hard to trust him there.
Plus in general, Simmons just hasn’t gotten to a point where he’s comfortable (or especially good at) shots that aren’t right at the rim, per NBA.com.
NBA.com also indicates that on jump shots, Simmons went 97-for-307 (31.6 percent). The numbers indicate that he might need more than a few minor tweaks to iron out all the wrinkles, but even if that is the case, he’s still only 21 years old. He has plenty of time to figure out what does and does not work for him as he works to add a jumper into his game.
