There’s a scene in the movie Half Baked where Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, and Guillermo Diaz to go visit their friend Kenny in jail.

They have a plan to get Kenny out of jail, by selling marijuana.

As they explain the plan to Kenny, Kenny becomes frustrated and says, through a glass barrier, “no more window love, go sell weed.” He’s frustrated being in jail and just wants to get out and get on with life.

This is how we feel about Ben Simmons and his jump shot. No more window love. No more Instagram videos. No more uncomfortable press conferences with reporters asking the guy why he won’t shoot the basketball.

He just needs to shoot.


The question is whether or not Doc Rivers and this coaching staff can make the breakthrough that Brett Brown was unable to make. Rivers said in a media session last week that he was not concerned about the shot, which was a little bothersome to hear. Obviously the shot makes Ben a better player. We’re talking about a guy who can do literally everything else at a borderline elite level, and if you add shooting to his game you’ve got a perennial All-Star on your roster. People gotta understand that bringing up Ben’s shot, or lack thereof, can originate from a place of positivity and not negativity.

To that point, we got a solid nugget Monday when Ben said this during a Zoom session about new assistant coach Sam Cassell:

“So prior to training camp getting started, we would just go on the floor and work out. A lot of midrange game, a lot of corner spot threes, lane threes, finishing around the rim. A bit of everything. Moreso into training camp, after practices, and before, I’ve been getting a lot of shots and reps up.”

Yes, excellent, Sam Cassell is on the case. The same Cassell who played 15 NBA seasons and shot 39% from three during his All Star season in Minnesota. A guy who didn’t shoot a ton of threes but hit at a respectable clip. Maybe he’s the guy who can unlock Simmons’ game and solve the mental puzzle he seems to face.

For context, Ben finished 2-7 from three last season. A handful of those shots were late-clock heaves and he pretty much stopped looking for that shot after the third legitimate attempt.

Ben took 647 field goals last season and just 30 of them originated from the 10 foot to three-point line range, leaving him with a shot chart looking like this:

Ben actually shot a lot more midrange stuff in prior years, getting up 99 of those shots in 2018-2019 and 228 in 2017-2018, his rookie year. He’s gone backwards in the midrange game.

And look, analytics folks do not like the midrange shot because it’s a lower percentage look that is ultimately less efficient, but in Ben’s case, he’s going to be given wide open looks in that area, and if he starts knocking them down, perhaps he steps back, starts hitting some threes, and then the Sixers spacing issues really start to move in a positive direction. We were naive to think that the guy is going to go from a 0% three point shooter to a 33% three-point shooter in the span of one offseason. It’s more about getting defenders to respect a nascent that in a way that helps open up other things on the floor.

Anyway, preseason begins in seven days, if you can believe it. We’ll see what kind of Ben Simmons shows up. No more window love.