Player Spotlight: Ben Simmons

[Rizzo]

POS	AGE	HEIGHT	WEIGHT
PF	19	6-10	240

YEAR	SCR	PAS	HDL	ORB	DRB	DEF	BLK	STL	DRFUL	DI	IQ	EN
2020 Post Draft	60	69	69	70	67	72	56	56	--	73	67	--
2020 Season Start	64	70	71	72	68	73	58	59	28	75	68	83

[Rizzo]

November 2, 2020 - As the 2020-2021 CSL season is finally underway, the wait continues for the arrival of perhaps the best prospect in league history. Ben Simmons comes in to the league with a ton of fanfare and rightfully so. A franchise in Miami that stripped its entire roster down to bare bones and sold the farm for the most possible Ping-Pong balls in the lottery. Low and behold the strategy worked as they were able to land the 1st and 2nd overall picks (along with the 8th and 16th picks to boot) guaranteeing themselves Simmons in Miami.

Miami is one of two teams (New Orleans being the other) to not have their first game of the season, the anticipation continues to grow. Simmons will begin his CSL career on the road in Milwaukee to face off against the lowly Bucks. Slated to start at power forward for the Heat, the dynamic rookie will be locked up with Giannis Antetokounmpo. Both players are physically gifted specimen with great height and length. Regardless, there is no denying who the superior player is even without Simmons having stepped foot on a professional floor.

With a player of this magnitude never having entered the league since its inception, we will be chronicling his journey throughout the CSL to see if Ben Simmons lives up to the hype and eventually becomes the next LeBron James, Paul George or even the best player in league history. Follow us on this journey to stardom!

[hardenwithnod]

Good stuff here, it's going to be interesting to see how Bender, Simmons, Smith, and Hamilton all work together.

[Rizzo]

Good stuff here, it's going to be interesting to see how Bender, Simmons, Smith, and Hamilton all work together.

While I'd love to follow the journey of all four of them, this thread will focus on just Simmons throughout his career. I think Hamilton, Simmons and Smith should be a great 3-4-5 trio but Bender could be the odd man out and moved for a true perimeter player.

[hardenwithnod]

Simmons definitely got the ratings, but will it translate into production? I feel that he should.

[8time]

I see a better scoring version of Draymond Green. Draymond is one of the most underrated players but he was a big success for the Pacers record last year.

With that said, Ben Simmons will be a future MVP candidate after Stanley retires.(sarcastic)

[Rizzo]

I love Draymond's game and would have loved to have added him to my roster if I stayed in Cleveland but I think that Simmons will definitely surpass Green by the rookie's 3rd season in the league.

[8time]

I love Draymond's game and would have loved to have added him to my roster if I stayed in Cleveland but I think that Simmons will definitely surpass Green by the rookie's 3rd season in the league.

Yeah I think I messaged you that one time when you were still with the Cavs wanting to draft Green lol. I offered #3 and bunch of shit for #2 because I knew Draymond would be pretty damn special. Worked out for me in the end with Stanley but yeah..

And yeah no doubt on the offensive side, Ben Simmons is far ahead of Draymond.

[mgtr81]

Very nice idea. Only concern could be his shooting, otherwise supremely talented.

[blackice]

Great stuff, curious to see how Simmons does.

[hardenwithnod]

Simmons the next hall of fame center.

[Rizzo]

Miami Heat 103, Milwaukee Bucks 96

PF Ben Simmons
15 points (4-8 FG, 7-10 FT), 3 rebounds (2 offensive), 3 turnovers, 4 fouls, 20 minutes

In the first game of the Ben Simmons era, the Miami Heat were able to top the Milwaukee Bucks by seven on the road. With five players on Miami playing 28+ minutes, most would assume that the #1 overall pick would have been one of them. Nope, that wasn’t the case. Simmons logged a total of 20 minutes and this game certainly wasn’t a blowout in any sense of the word. While Simmons did have some foul trouble, it wasn’t bad enough to force him to the bench for long stretches of the game.

Regardless of the playing time, Simmons looked like what some would have expected: a rookie. He connected on 50% of his field goal attempts and 70% of his free throws. Those numbers are nothing to shake your head a. I’m sure if he were to finish his career with those percentages the Heat (and wherever else he plays throughout his career) would be very happy. Of his eight shots, seven of them came inside the paint where he connected on four of them, good for 57.1% inside shooting. The other field goal he attempted was a mid-range jumper just outside the right elbow that didn’t have a chance at falling. While he is a gifted slasher, a mid-range jump shot will take some serious work for him to be able to utilize with any sort of consistency in his career.

Elsewhere in the box score he was nothing short of disappointing. He was only able to corral three rebounds – though two of them were on the offensive end – while recording bagels in the assist, steal and block columns. Add in his three turnovers and his game was underwhelming in terms of the all-around prowess we were hoping to see from the “Phenom”.

On the defensive end…well things weren’t much better. We already noted he recorded just one rebound and no steals or blocks (though he did force two turnovers), but what about the defensive metrics? Going up against an athlete like Giannis Antetokounmpo was a decent test for his first game in the league. Unfortunately, he seemingly failed every step of the way. The Greek Freak was able to score 18 points on 7-15 shooting and got to the line four times. Simmons’ perimeter defense was non-existent as he faced eight drives on the night and was unable to stop any of them. Some say his weight (240 pounds) will really hold back his ability to guard outside of the paint and that was obvious tonight. He also faced two shots and yielded two points. A small sample size but still stops were very difficult to come by for Simmons.

One game under his belt, are we breaking down this kid’s game too much? Yup, probably right, but that’s what we are here to do. It’s going to be interesting to see how Silogical handles Simmons and finds ways to get the most out of him. He also will be juggling rookies Joshua Smith, Malcolm Miller, Dragan Bender and Daniel Hamilton so the experiment will be a year-long experience.

[hardenwithnod]

Underwhelming debut, but it's just his first game in limited minutes.

[OneNole]

Adam, for your sake, i really hope you don't do this more than once a week to every two weeks. You will kill yourself otherwise.

Outside of that, it was 1 game. He has the weight of the franchise on his shoulders lol

[Rizzo]

Adam, for your sake, i really hope you don't do this more than once a week to every two weeks. You will kill yourself otherwise.

Outside of that, it was 1 game. He has the weight of the franchise on his shoulders lol

Only did a writeup because it was his first game. It will be more monthly/semi-annually from here on out for sure.

[Silogical]

STP% isnt too concerning, his outside shooting is so bad i doubt he'll ever play 1-2-3 even if he loses weight.

20 minutes played is no big deal unless it becomes a trend. His DI/IQ is ok so it shouldnt become a trend.

[Dennis]

trash

[Silogical]

Dont feature any of my other rookies.

[OneNole]

Dont feature any of my other rookies.

Im not really sure you can tell someone who they can and can not write about?

[Silogical]

Dont feature any of my other rookies.

Im not really sure you can tell someone who they can and can not write about?

I dont know what % you are serious but im 0% serious. it's 2 games.