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

The big picture

Let’s take a step back and think about the long-term here. Let’s say Simmons is a late bloomer and his jump shot doesn’t start taking form for another five years. If that is the case, then that means that Simmons will be 28 years old when his jump shot becomes a threat — still in the first half of his career. The fact that he is so gifted at such a young age should be a cause for concern amongst everyone in the league who isn’t in Philadelphia.

In this age of instant gratification, we expect everyone to come out of the draft and be a complete player in an instant. Everyone wants their team to find an overnight success, but in reality, that just doesn’t exist. In fact, the closest thing we’ve had to that in a long time is Ben Simmons. For him to be this good this early is a bit shocking, and it may also be the reason we expect him to develop at an accelerated rate. He’ll get there — we just need to give him time.

Happiness is built off of expectations. We aren’t totally happy with Ben Simmons as a player because we expect him to take and make more jump shots. However, if we remove that expectation from our minds, it’s really hard to hate what Simmons is and what he will accomplish.

At the end of the day, the guy is 23 years old. His shot will develop in time, and when he does, he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. In fact, he already is.