On June 20, 2021, the Philadelphia Sixers faced head-to-head against the Atlanta Hawks in a win-or-go home game. With the season on the line, this game determined the placement for the Eastern Conference Finals. The scoreboard read four minutes, when Ben Simmons made a spin move and got to the basket. He went up for the open lay-up to cut the lead, but he unexpectedly passed the ball away! MatisseThybulle, a shooting-guard, received the ball and was fouled. The replay clearly depicted Ben Simmons throwing the ball away on an easy score. With that, all momentum is lost and Sixers dug themselves a hole they would never escape from. The final score read 103-96 as the Hawks escaped with a victory. This single play encapsulates Ben Simmons’ substandard performance throughout the entire series.
We all remember the Sixers’ catastrophic postseason. Particularly all the slander Simmons received that led to a broken relationship and a rift within the organization. Philadelphia fans wanted him traded and shunned him for his disappointing playoff performance; Philadelphia had turned their backs on Simmons, evidently resulting in Simmons’ intentions to leave the Philadelphia Sixers. Ben Simmons also stated that he “intends to never play another game with the franchise.” After a disappointing postseason, he felt as if there was no hope for any championship victories as long as he was affiliated with the organization. As a result, for the past few weeks, Simmons has refused to come to training camp or preseason games, not only serving unnecessary drama to the organization, but also causing team chemistry to plummet. In retaliation, the organization has been fining him based on the amount of practices and games he misses using his contract money. Now the big question is, “how will the feud between Simmons and the Sixers play out?”
In the regular season, Simmons averaged 14.3 points per game. To put that into scale, out of the top fifty point guards in the league, he was 29th. Which is not great considering he has the 15th most minutes per-game among point guards. Another stat that was greatly scrutinized was Ben Simmons’s free throws percentage. During the regular season, he ranked last out of 26 point guards with a percentage of 61%. On the other hand, he had a great field goal percentage of 55.7%, which was the second worst in the league. His defense and rebounding also rank higher than the average, ranking him third in the league with 7.2 rebounds per game, just behind the stars Russel Westbrook and Luka Doncic. Even his facilitating and assists were at an elite level during the regular season. Despite the shoddy performance during the postseason, his regular season numbers were just as elite as other NBA superstars.
As the Sixers started their postseason, their hopes were high. After an overall easy series against the Wizards they had to face the Hawks. Many fans expected the Sixers to be able to beat the Hawks, and most were worried about their next opponent: Giannis and the Bucks. In order to play the Bucks, the Sixers had to defeat the Atlanta Hawks. In a grueling seven game series, the Hawks caused an upset by defeating the Sixers, leaving Philadelphia fans speechless. Fans needed a scapegoat, and they found one in Ben Simmons. His stats on a surface-level perspective seem average as Ben averaged 9.8 points and 8.6 assists per game. Despite this average performance, these stats do not suffice for someone who is an all-star caliber player, nor do they compare to the stats of Trae Young, the point-guard for the Hawks. Young averaged 29 points per game and 10.9 assists per game. In the series against Atlanta, Simmons took an average of 0.4 shots in fourth quarters. That means there were some games, where he did not even attempt to score in the last quarter. Fourth quarters are the most important quarter in a game, and that is when the leaders of a team should step up and take action. This is why many fans were upset by his performance during the playoffs. According to Tyler Nolan ‘25, a Sixers fan, “Simmons’s performance against the Hawks was embarrassing”.
Over the summer, the Sixers have been attempting to trade Ben Simmons. There had been rumors of potential trades, but they did not work out. The latest trade offer, involving Portland, was rejected. Right now, the Sixers are at a deadlock with Ben Simmons, as they are not able to trade him away. Considering Simmons’s new attitude and his lackluster playoff performance, the best move the Sixers could make is to trade him. The situation between Ben Simmons and the Sixers still continues; only time will tell if his relationship with the Sixers can heal or if he will be moved to another team.
Sources
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/simmobe01/gamelog-playoffs/
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/simmobe01.html
https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/player/_/stat/scoring-per-game
https://www.distractify.com/p/why-does-ben-simmons-want-to-be-traded
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/y/youngtr01/gamelog-playoffs/