{"id":89525,"date":"2021-06-22T23:31:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T23:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=89525"},"modified":"2021-06-23T03:00:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T03:00:49","slug":"simmons-constantly-babied-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=89525","title":{"rendered":"Simmons 'constantly babied, doesn't work'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons<\/a> "doesn't work and doesn't listen" and is "babied" by those close to him according to ESPN's<\/em> Stephen A. Smith as debate intensifies on whether the Australian should be shipped out of Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking on ESPN's First Take, Smith said he received a text message from a source "very, very close to the situation in Philadelphia" and that "everyone around him (Simmons) is family, and he's constantly babied".<\/p>\n

\"76ers<\/p>\n

Simmons has come under immense pressure from fans, teammates and media members<\/a> after his inept performance in the game 7 loss to Atlanta, all but ending their championship hopes despite finishing the regular season in top spot in the East.<\/p>\n

Both coach Doc Rivers and 76er star Joel Embiid cast serious doubt over the Australian's chances of staying with team after the game seven loss.<\/p>\n

When asked if he thinks Simmons can play point guard on a championship team, Rivers responded: "I don't know the answer to that right now".<\/p>\n

However, Rivers was more optimistic on Wednesday AEST and said he is not ready to give up on the former No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n

"I'm very bullish on Ben still," Rivers said.<\/p>\n

"But there's work. There is. And Ben will be willing to do it, and that's the key. Sometimes you have to go through stuff to see it, and to be honest with it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I think some of the stuff is obvious," Rivers added.<\/p>\n

"We're not hiding that Ben has to become a better free-throw shooter, and a more confident free-throw shooter. If that happens, I really believe a lot of the other parts of his game will follow. I said that before the season started. The first thing I said was, 'We got to get him to the line 10 times a night.' So, we've got to put in work so he can get there. But if we can get him there, man, his game goes to a different level."<\/p>\n

"Obviously what Ben just went through, I can't imagine that. Because he has so much greatness in all the things around him that he does.<\/p>\n

"There are areas that he can fix, quickly, in my opinion, and get better, that will take him to another level.<\/p>\n

\"Simmons<\/p>\n

"Sometimes you don't know why you're in different places, you know what I mean? But this may be one of them. I look at this as a great challenge, but definitely a doable one."<\/p>\n

However, Smith is adamant the Simmons needs to go, considering he hasn't made an effort to improve since being drafted by the 76ers.<\/p>\n

"They've asked him for four years to improve his jump shot," Smith added on SportsCenter.<\/p>\n

"He ignored coaches, he ignored assistant coaches, he ignored teammates, he ignored his agent, he ignored family members because he liked being in L.A, being in South Beach.<\/p>\n

"He likes saying he went to the gym to play as opposed to going to the gym to work on my game. And it came back to bite him – because the one thing you can say about Ben Simmons is that he can't shoot.<\/p>\n

"If you're primary ball-handler can't shoot and everybody knows it then what you need to do is use him to get viable assets like an Andrew Wiggins with a couple of picks from Golden State, like a CJ McCollum from Portland somebody that can shoot and won't waste away the best years of Joel Embiid's career."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Simmons "doesn't work and doesn't listen" and is "babied" by those close to him according to ESPN's Stephen A. Smith as debate intensifies on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89525"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89527,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89525\/revisions\/89527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}