Sixers

“I Almost Think He Needs a Shot Quota,” Says Ben Simmons’ High School Coach

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jun 25th, 2021 · 10:39 AM EDT

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Let’s get it back to Ben Simmons.

How do we get him to shoot the ball? To be more assertive? To look more like the guy we saw in Summer League many years ago?

John Clark spoke to Ben’s high school coach, Kevin Boyle, from Montverde Academy:

Ben Simmons renowned HS coach Kevin Boyle

“I almost think he needs a shot quota that he has to be put on”

‘If you don’t take X amount of attempts & a jump shot in the 1st & 3rd quarter, You’re not starting the next game’”

🎧Listen to revealing podcast🔽https://t.co/2DH3zYwmfw pic.twitter.com/rzy2SyB23h

— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) June 25, 2021

Sounds great in theory, but this high school stuff doesn’t work in the NBA. You’re talking about millionaires with powerful agents and blah blah. If Doc Rivers benches Ben Simmons because he won’t shoot, Rich Paul is on the phone with Daryl Morey two hours later, complaining, asking why his three-time All-Star has a seat next to Rayjon Tucker.

And the complication is that Ben is four years in. He’s not a rookie anymore. If this was year number one they could maybe try some of this high school kid stuff, but it seems like we’re well beyond that point. The only realistic scenario I think is for the Sixers to say, “here’s who you’re working with in the offseason, and if you don’t like it, we’re trading you.” No more Instagram videos, no more working with his brother, none of that. You just can’t do the high school routine with professionals in a player’s league where they’re making tens of millions of dollars and dating supermodels and yadda yadda yadda. Look at what Markelle Fultz did after he was benched. Didn’t go so well. And Brett Brown tried to get Ben to shoot more threes and got less instead. “Evidently I have failed” was the famous quote from a few years ago.

Good interview by John though. Check out the whole thing in that tweet above. He’s got the link in there.