I gotta fight back here on this Coggin piece about Ben Simmons. Specifically this part:

I wholly realize this may be insanely reactionary due to witnessing the worst game Ben Simmons played in his NBA career last night, but game three is suddenly looming as a massive moment for the talented 76ers point guard.

Forget about this being an absolute do-or-die game in the series. It feels huge for Simmons’ career.

There are plenty of good points in here – chiefly Ben Simmons continuously doing things that don’t work (some of that on the coach?) and Simmons being concerned with Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum taking his second round rookie buzz – but the notion that has any sort of career defining element to it is absurd. How did LeBron James do in the playoffs his rookie year? If anything, this is a vector point for Benjamin. To date, Simmons has been considered a world beater– if a series against Jayson Tatum and the Celtics exposes his weaknesses and he dips out unceremoniously from the playoffs, it will change the narrative to be that he’s somehow not a winner. This can, of course, all change one year from now, or after he wins possibly multiple titles and MVPs. It’s a short-term stamp and little more. We don’t remember what LeBron did his rookie year because it was his FUCKING ROOKIE YEAR!

So, agreed that Simmons runs the danger of getting cucked by scoring rookies like Tatum or Simmons these playoffs, but that does not mean one ounce of good shit for his career as a whole. We need… to pump the MF-ing brakes, because I think he’ll put up a triple-double in Philly.