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Kyle Korver’s Toughest Assignment Yet: Fixing Ben Simmons’ Free Throw Shooting
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We have some electrifying practice footage of Brooklyn Net Ben Simmons:
Ben Simmons at #Nets practice today. #nba pic.twitter.com/g2vjE9kfyS
— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) February 23, 2022
That’s former 76er Kyle Korver there. He’s a player development coach for the Nets these days. He played more than 15 seasons in the NBA against some of the toughest perimeter defenders out there, but this is his most difficult assignment yet. He must turn Ben Simmons into a respectable free throw shooter.
Korver was a career 87.7% free throw shooter. Ben is a healthy 59.7% and 52% in the playoffs. He hit at a whopping 34.2% during last year’s Wizards and Nets series. It was ugly. Doc Rivers blew me off when I asked about benching Ben Simmons for the hack-a-Ben routine, then what did he do? He went ahead and benched Ben Simmons. The entire thing was a big farce.
Good luck to Korver, though. He didn’t sign up for this shit. He thought he’d be helping along young draft picks and two-way players in relative obscurity. Now he has to fix Ben’s free throwing shooting. Godspeed, Kyle Korver.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com