Seeing Ben Simmons score a steal, eat up the basketball floor with a couple of long strides, and throw a two-handed slam brought tears to the eyes of many a basketball fan, particularly those of the world's greatest basketball league, the NBA.
As surprising as it may sound, there are basketball fans who aren't impressed with the show that is the NBA. Some basketball fans find the showy, flamboyant, and often over-the-top display of machismo a little much.
On the tactical and stylistic front, basketball fans, particularly in Europe, are dissatisfied with the NBA's departure from the fundamentals of the game, which is heavy on rebounding and pass first team-oriented play.
Centers in the current NBA prioritize shooting points from beyond the three-point line, whereas point guards prioritize scoring points above creating better shot opportunities for teammates and assists.
Simmons is a throwback playmaker who prefers to pass than score and is trapped in the physique of a Power Forward; he's a 6 foot 10 incher who scores near to the basket and in the open court.
Simmons was forced to play as a floor spacer who makes three pointers, and his ability to handle the ball was further hampered when he was paired with Joel Embiid.
His first stint with the Nets was supposed to be better, but with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the team and insisting that the offense go through them, Simmons was pushed to the sidelines.
Fighting physical and mental illnesses proved to be stumbling obstacles for Simmons as well. It may be absurd to claim that the NBA failed Ben Simmons; where is the personal culpability in all of this, you may ask? In a capitalist society, the NBA, like all American-based sports leagues, works in a socialist vacuum.
After a peculiar series of hesitations to give Simmons the best chance to thrive, the NBA is now doing the right thing by surrounding him with shooters and allowing him to function as the primary ball handler. Simmons was on the court with Cam Thomas, Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton, and Mikal Bridges in Brooklyn's 126-129 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Claxton isn't a floor spacer by any means, but his agile dashes to the rim put the opposition's defense under continual strain to account for him as a lob threat, especially with three scorers in Thomas, Bridges, and Dinwiddie.
An even better circumstance for Simmons is the anticipated acquisition of injured three-point shooter Cameron Johnson.
Having Johnson is an excellent fit for the Brooklyn Nets and Simmons because Thomas, Bridges, Johnson, and Dinwiddie have the appropriate size to occupy the spaces outside the Center position that Simmons can fill while facing a team hell-bent on forcing the Aussie to attempt shots many feet from the basket.
Simmons' flexibility extends to the Center position, as he is a two-time NBA All Defensive First Team member with a 6-foot-10 stature. Simmons at Center may operate similarly to two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Award winner Nikola Jokic for the Denver Nuggets by surrounding him with shooters and scorers.
In Denver, the Serb plays next to a three-point shooter, like as Dinwiddie or Jamal Murray, but is entrusted with pushing the ball up court and getting the offense in motion.
Simmons performs best in this mode because he has Jokic's court vision and is just as strong but much faster than the massive Serb.
The top tier of the Eastern Conference is very much decided, with the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics leading the way and the Miami Heat in a tier close to this group.
Cleveland and the Philadelphia Sixers are in the rung below Miami, and the Brooklyn Nets, who are midway between the Heat and the Sixers plus Cleveland, have the potential to be a dark horse conference title challenger like Miami.
Much of this is due to how Nets coach Jacque Vaughn employs the chess piece not named LeBron James in his lineups, capitalizing on the Aussie's talents while working hard to eliminate his faults.
Simmons has to improve his midrange and three-point shooting efficiency, as well as try to get opposing defenses to pay more attention to him while he's not on the court.
Marcus Smart, a former Boston Celtics guard who is now a Memphis Grizzlies guard, makes just enough three-point shots to make defenses care for his presence off the ball.
However, at 27 years old, Simmons is pretty set in his ways, and if he fails to pivot his game to a floor spacer the way Brook Lopez did even at such an advanced age, the Brooklyn Nets, and thus the NBA, must continue with its Ben Simmons redemption module after failing to do so the first time out.
The NBA, like other American sports leagues, makes every attempt to protect the emblem and make the league even bigger than it already is.
Just as the league was able to transform Andrew Wiggins' non-impactful 18-point scoring average for the Minnesota Timberwolves into an impactful member of the Golden State Warriors title-winning club, it can and is on its way to accomplishing the same for Ben Simmons.
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