Philadelphia 76ers: Ben Simmons’ epic rookie season reaches new heights

In leading the Philadelphia 76ers to their 30th win of the season, Ben Simmons took his breathtaking rookie season to another level.

The final game before the All-Star break was always going to be a challenge for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Not only were they without the services of All-Star center Joel Embiid, they were facing the team ranked directly below them in the Eastern Conference standings, the Miami Heat. Despite coming off a narrow road loss to the Toronto Raptors the previous night, the Heat’s tag-team in the middle of Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo presented an enormous challenge without the presence of Embiid down low.

But this wasn’t going to deter Ben Simmons.

Despite the Sixers falling behind 62-39 at the break, Simmons again demonstrated the form and composure that currently has him neck-and-neck with Donovan Mitchell for Rookie of the Year honors. In leading the Sixers to a nail-biting 104-102 victory over the Heat, Simmons posted his sixth triple-double of the season, recording 18 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

However, like much of the Sixers’ team, it was Simmons’ performance in the second half that was simply sublime. During this stretch of the game, Simmons posted 10 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals. Following the game, Sixers’ head coach Brett Brown was naturally delighted with his performance:

"“He has tremendous poise….he’s not fazed at all. He handles himself with a tremendous amount of grace and poise for being so young, especially being responsible for what I believe is the most difficult position in the NBA – a point guard.”"

Despite his outstanding start to his career, this was perhaps Simmons’ most impressive performance to date. Prior to this game, the Sixers had registered just a 2-8 record in games where Embiid was sidelined. Considering the start the Sixers made to start the game, this record looked like it was going to continue in a similar fashion.

As coach Brown alluded to though, Simmons’ poise and overall ability to stamp himself on the contest was not typical from someone playing just his 54th career game.

Furthermore, Simmons was having to contend with a couple of other areas of adjustment. Firstly, the Sixers’ two primary 3-point shooters, J.J. Redick and Robert Covington, shot a combined 3-of-20 from long range.

In addition, Simmons was required to incorporate the team’s new signing, veteran shooting guard Marco Belinelli, into the rotation. Unlike the aforementioned duo, Belinelli had a terrific debut performance, posting 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting overall.

In his race to the be crowned Rookie of the Year, Simmons is putting together a stat line for the ages in averaging 16.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists and 1.9 steals in 34.9 minutes per game. Additionally, Simmons ranks 10th in the league with 3.1 deflections, with his steals mark ranking eighth overall. While his outside shooting has been virtually non-existent, Simmons’ ability to already influence the game at both ends of the floor has been pronounced.

Among the praise lavished at Simmons over the course of the season were the following comments made by Los Angeles Clippers head coach, Doc Rivers:

Among his comments, Rivers noted:

"“Ben’s a moose, he’s a strong dude…..I was amazed by his power. You have regular speed as power, and that becomes power, and you have power at speed – and he has both. He’s going to be unbelievable.”"

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At 6’10”, and possessing a 7’0″ wingspan, Simmons’ combination of poise, power and speed, in conjunction with his uncanny basketball instincts, make Rivers’ comments ring true. Considering this is just his first season, Ben Simmons has an enormous chance to become truly great in the league.