It’s been less than two weeks since they made him the top overall selection in the NBA Draft, and already the Sixers have big plans in mind for prized young rookie Ben Simmons.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown sees the 19-year-old Simmons eventually playing point guard for the team, though not right away, he told Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com on Wednesday.
“I think the point-guard position is the hardest position to play in the NBA as a first-year player, let alone as a person that’s played a four man his whole life,” Brown was quoted as saying. “He would be all over the place. It seems quite reckless to do it, almost unfair. I hope to continue to be ambitiously creative at tapping into what he really can do, and in my heart of hearts I think he can do it.”
The 6-foot-10 Simmons is a natural power forward but with his elite court vision and playmaking skills, he could pose matchup hell for opponents should the Sixers choose to deploy him as their lead ballhandler. Philadelphia hasn’t really gotten much production out of the point guard position during Brown’s tenure as head coach, and Simmons was often used in a point forward role in his lone season at LSU.
Like Brown said, the Sixers won’t throw Simmons to the wolves right away especially as a rookie with a steep learning curve that would become even more precipitous by playing him out of position. But in a league where those positional designations are largely becoming an obsolete label, if they can slowly groom Simmons into a primary playmaker on one end while somebody else defends opposing point guards on the other end (similar to Milwaukee’s plan for Giannis Antetokounmpo), that just might be the full realization of the Australian’s enormous potential.
H/T Rotoworld
