Steve Nash Doesn't Care if Ben Simmons "Ever Shoots a Jump Shot for the Brooklyn Nets"
Coach Steve Nash says he doesn’t care if Ben Simmons “ever shoots a jump shot” for the Brooklyn Nets because of the versatility and unique skill set that he brings to the team.
“Very unique,” Nash said of Simmons after the second full practice of training camp on Wednesday. “That’s what makes Ben great. That’s why I don’t care if he ever shoots a jump shot for the Brooklyn Nets. He’s welcome to, but that is not what makes him special and not what we need. He’s a great complement to our team, and he’s an incredible basketball player because of his versatility.”
Some people are sick of Ben Simmons talk, but not me. I’m fascinated to see how he does alongside Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Is Ben going to handle the ball? Will Kyrie play off-ball? Or do they let Kyrie be the point guard and play small ball with Simmons at center?
That was one of the biggest on-court topics with Ben in Philly. Plenty of people out there believed that he simply was not a point guard, even though that’s how Brett Brown and Doc Rivers used him. They wanted more of Ben at the five, or even the four, though he wasn’t going to stretch and floor and shoot like a Dario Saric or Ersan Ilyasova.
For what it’s worth, most depth charts, which are unofficial, have Nic Claxton listed as the starting five. He’s a long and lean rim runner who honestly is kind of underrated. Ben can’t play the four with Claxton on the floor, so I’m interested to see how Steve Nash decides to do this. We’re finally, we hope, going to answer some lingering questions that we’ve had about Ben Simmons the basketball player.