Isaac
Years ago
Bloodbath at the moment. No Embiid or Richardson for Philly but still up 77-36 by half-time.
Simmons had 26 in the first half. Part-way through the third, he has 29 points on 11/12 FG in 21 minutes. Hit a three. Two steals, two blocks. +33.
Here's Simmons' second three in the NBA:
I dont get it. Simmons has a nice stroke from outside and hits countless 3's in practice. I know the whole thing about playing the percentages and he's better off driving but look around the league there are guys taking terrible shots like westbrook who is shooting 20% from down town so surely even if simmons shoots 30% from the 3 point line with 6 or so attempts a game that would be not bad
Isaac
Years ago
But what advantage would that bring? What's the rush? If his game is driving and his teammates are strong shooters*, he should stick with that more often than not. I imagine it takes time to adjust the game that feels natural to you.
Westbrook is fascinating because even if he knows he shouldn't take threes, it seems he can't help himself.
* Eight rotation players shooting 36% or better. Simmons is at 33%, marginallyahead of Scott, Embiid and Harris who all attemt 3+/game.
KET
Years ago
In this day/age Simmons probably needs to be decent enough at threes that players have to stretch out to defend him opposed to lagging off.
His athleticism and driving ability means he could get past most trying to stretch defend him outside, so that forces help D or even two help defenders, which allows him to kick the ball out where the defenders are now completely out of place so the open player can either shoot an open three, or drive themselves, or kick it along which forces a scramble defence.
This is the type of stuff the Spurs used to do where defenders would spend too much energy all game, tire out, and Spurs would get open threes and open passes down low.
The only way that works is if you take away the zone defence and make the defence move all game. When you've got Simmons, Embiid, Harris, Horford, Richardson etc. that means you've got 2-3 players who need to be double teamed. If you're an opposition and you apply that kind of defence out to the arc, you're in trouble. At the moment they don't need to do that with Simmons and they would probably take the poison of Embiid shooting open threes, so a zone defence doesn't look as bad to contain the 76ers.
Violet Crumble
Years ago
I feel like in the modern NBA, given the amount of pick-and-roll, you need a ball handler/driver, a rim running big, and shooters around them, and it's up to your ball handler to make the right decision in the drive-and-kick game. Simmons obviously is in that situation most of the time, so whilst a 3 point shot would be handy, it isn't necessarily essential, particularly when you is so gifted athletically.
The Sixers tend to run into problems when they use someone else as the ball handler (eg. with Butler last season), or when they make a conscious effort to post Embiid in set plays. This basically takes away all Simmons strengths, and consigns him to the "dunkers spot". Part of the problem is on Brett Brown. You could use Simmons as your screen setter/roll man, but they rarely seem to do that (probably because that tends to put Embiid on the perimeter where he isn't truly effective).
So whilst the 3 point shot isn't necessarily essential (just look at Giannis and his hit-and-miss 3 pt shooting), it wouldn't hurt that he was at least partially competent, especially as he ages and his athleticism declines.
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