Is Ben Simmons Worth All That Money?

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How You Make Hummus In Just Three Minutes Ben Simmons is set to become the highest paid Australian athlete of all time, having been offered a $240.4 million ﬁve-year contract extension -– even though he can’t and/or won’t shoot a basketball. & Latest Videos That’s an exaggeration. He’ll shoot from within 10 feet, anywhere around the paint. The Importance Of Outside of that, though, his shot attempt chart is an absolute wasteland. It's like Mad Auslan Interpreters Max out there. )

Now, anyone - multimillionaire pro athlete or otherwise - is worth whatever the market The Latest Life In Lockdown will pay. That's how capitalism works. And NBA teams are notorious for wildly overpaying ) free agents. So it's not exactly his fault if his team wants to throw money at him. What's he supposed to do? Say no? He's worth it to them. Kate Langbroek Gives Us The Latest From Italy )

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Simmons' shot attempt chart last season. # Quick Reads Except this is basketball, where you have to shoot the ball into the basket. 4 Cafe Serves Up Soup Kitchen Of MIN Human Kindness And he can't. READ

How To Stay Positive (And Not Cry) 3 When Things Ah... Don't Exactly Go As MIN He could be Magic Johnson or LeBron READ Planned James. That's how much potential he has. Exactly What To Wear To Your 2 Redundancy Meeting (Aside From A MIN If he learned how to shoot. READ Look Of Despair)

4 Rules Are Lifting But You Still Don’t MIN Want To Go Out? It Might Be FOGO But he won't. READ

The phenomenon is incredibly weird, somewhat appalling and it will only get more 2 Thursday Is The Best Day Of The MIN Week. Fight Me. pronounced the more he’s paid because with more money, comes greater expectations. READ And Philadelphia fans are not known for their patience.

READ MORE: Ben Simmons Not Happy, As Philadelphia Turns Against Him

In the ﬁrst round of the 2018-2019 NBA Playoffs, Jared Dudley of the Brooklyn Nets (full Let us slide into your DMs disclosure - I am a Nets fan) was asked how he and his team would deal with the Get The Headlines # athletic juggernaut that is Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers.

I mean, my God, how WOULD they handle him? Ben Simmons is approximately nine feet tall, extremely strong and astonishingly quick, especially for someone his size. He’s a menace around the basket, a triple-double machine and dunks with entertaining $ Trending ferocity. How To Stay Positive (And 1 Not Cry) When Things Ah... “Ben Simmons is a great player in transition,” Dudley said. “And once you get him into Don't Exactly Go As Planned half court, he’s average.” ' VIEWS

READ MORE: Ben Simmons Offered Richest Deal In Aussie Sports History Our Leaders’ Handling Of 2 The Coronavirus, Ranked Dudley, who's now a below average player, was roasted for insulting a superstar. But it ' VIEWS was also widely acknowledged that he was right. Ben Simmons is dazzling in transition, running the ball up and down the court, passing or throwing it down. It’s a lot of fun to 3 Thursday Is The Best Day watch and it made him the number one pick coming out of college, Rookie of the Year in Of The Week. Fight Me. ' 2018 and an All-Star. VIEWS

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Dazzling in transition, but he can't shoot. (Image: Getty)

But he is something else in the half court, when the game slows down and the ability to make a jump shot becomes even more valuable than it already is. Players defending Simmons will back WAY off of him. He is always open. Cartoonishly open. Open to the extent that it’s unclear what exactly is happening on the court. You’ll start thinking to yourself, “Did someone call timeout? Is the game over? What sport are we playing?”

Why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because he can’t shoot.

His teammates and coach want him to shoot.

But he won’t shoot.

Just watch how LeBron James, who at this point in his career is not interested in playing defense anyway, is able to guard Simmons:

Lebron James DISRESPECTFULLY EXP… Watch later Share

Simmons’ lack of a jumper has made him a liability in clutch situations and at various points in the playoffs, the Sixers turned ﬂoorleader duties over to Jimmy Butler and had Simmons get out of the way. This happens all the time to certain kinds of limited players - but not to max contract superstars.

Of course, by now all of this has been unpacked. The numbers have been crunched. He admits that he's never had to shoot before so he didn't learn that particularly fundamental basketball skill. But he's apparently working on his shot with his brother Liam. And he insists the jumpshot is "very important" (REALLY?).

Look, I am not a sports insider or even someone who knows that much about NBA strategy. And I don't know Ben Simmons' life. He, like a lot of NBA superstars, lives on a different planet from me and I would never presume to tell them what to do or to know what would ﬁx their problems.

But how about practicing some shooting, Ben Simmons?

And whatever this is doesn’t count:

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Of course, Simmons is 22 years old and he’s only been in the league for two years, so he can certainly learn to shoot. That is possible. But based on his lack of enthusiasm - and the fact that he can make an unholy amount of money without doing it -that’s not looking likely.

And I suppose you could argue that on a team with Tobias Harris, Al Horford and Joel Embiid, all of whom can actually shoot, he doesn’t need to (as some have suggested).

It should also be pointed out that the Sixers came within a few bounces of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals and possibly the Finals. And if they win a championship within the next couple of years everyone will change their minds and I'll deny that I ever said any of this (as long as Simmons plays a key role and isn't told to stand in the corner on offense).

But there should still be concerns for his longevity in the league. The NBA has been moving away from longer range two-pointers, the kind that Simmons refuses to take - and it's RUNNING towards three-pointers, which he deﬁnitely doesn't take.

In fact, last February, an attempted three-pointer was practically a media event.

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OH SIMMONS TRIED IT.

Ben Simmons attempts another legitimate NBA triple, it was a miss, but we know Sixers fans have to be happy with the progress. He turns the miss into a bucket, though.

1,325 11:15 AM - Feb 26, 2019

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If you watch this compilation of Simmons shooting outside shots, you might understand why...

Ben Simmons Jump Shot Compilation Watch later Share

So what happens when he's over 30 and he can’t ﬂy around the court like he does? What’s he going to do?

Well, he'll probably laugh himself to sleep on his bed of cash in his gold house ﬁlled with well-wishing celebrities.

Fine. But what about AFTER that?

He won’t be on an NBA team, unless the game suddenly evolves into the kind of sport where you can just stand there and do absolutely nothing. But that would make it baseball. And if that happens, we'll have bigger problems than Ben Simmons’ lack of a jump shot.

Featured Image: Getty

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