Philadelphia 76ers: Let Ben Simmons develop on his own time

Different isn’t a bad thing

As humans, being faced with something different can be scary. We’re thrown off by things that are unlike what we’re used to — especially when it’s prominent. Is that part of what makes us hesitant to embrace Ben Simmons?

Think of who the superstar point guards have been in the 21st century. The modern NBA has been dominated by small guards who handle the ball well and shoot as quickly and as accurately as Clint Eastwood in a western movie. We’ve gotten so used to seeing Allen Iverson, Chris Paul and Steph Curry, and it’s made us form an expectation in our head of what the modern-day point guard should look like.

So, when we’re faced with a player like Ben Simmons, we get confused and angry. We want him to be like the other point guards we’ve seen, but he just isn’t — and that’s okay. Magic Johnson is still the greatest point guard of all time, and was he a drop-dead shooter? He was much closer to Ben Simmons than he was to any of the aforementioned point guard phenoms of the past twenty years. If it worked for him, why can’t it work for Simmons?

Like many problems in society (but we won’t go there), people are labeling Simmons and trying to force him into a “point guard” box. If he stayed as a power forward, would anybody be criticizing his lack of shooting prowess? It’s highly doubtful.

But, since he’s technically a point guard, it’s expected that he shoots any shot that Curry or Paul or Iverson would take. It’s highly unlikely that Simmons is ever going to be that guy, but it doesn’t mean that he can’t eventually surpass them in his own unique way.