Ben Simmons

[chinngiskhaan]

literally shot 0% from 3 in the regular season.

wow

[EagleMountainUte]

I think it is bad outside 12 feet as well. Free throw percentage is in the 40%.  So in a tight game you hack the primary ball handler in Simmons.  He can’t stay on the court, Kerr does this a lot. Instead of let Houston take shots GSW hacked Capela and played the odds. Not saying it is fair but that’s the rules until the NBA figures out how refs can prove intent. I know some broadcasters moan about euro fouls and how it is ruining the game. Tell me how you prove the intent of a foul?

 

Mitchell won the award as voted on by the players so who cares what a bunch of dumb ass media members think??

EDIT. Turns out the GM held Simmons out last season to. Simmons was healthy and could have played but they wanted him to win ROTY. He is simply not a rookie. Other advantage is he has Embiid on his team. Give Mitchell an all star teammate he probably has a higher shooting percentage and possibly more assists.

[chinngiskhaan]

how does a human being that spens their entire existence doing almost nothing but playing basketball suck so bad at free throws? I just don’t get it. I haven’t played consistently in years, and I can still go out there and hit 85-90 free throws out of 100 without any warming up… and I was a mediocre player on my mediocre high school team (back then I shot at least 100 straight every day and almost never made less than 90 out of 100). That’s all it took. Proper form, and shooting at least 100 of them a day, and I could hit 8 out of 10 with my eyes closed the entire time. Again, I was not a good high school player, I rode the bench on a slightly above average 4A team.

If someone practiced enough, they could teach themselves to kick the ball into the hoop from the free throw line 90% of the time. There is absolutely no excuse. They get paid millions of dollars to play a game, and they don’t even bother trying to get good at the most basic basketball skill there is. It is truly pathetic.

If he is that bad at shooting, he either spends no time at all working on it, or (the more likely answer) he is a tremendous headcase that needs to pull his head out of his a$$.

 

[PlainsUte]

I wish I could give this 45 thumbs-up.  I didn’t play organized basketball after Jr High and even in college I could probably make 80% from the free throw line.  One time Coca-Cola was doing a promotion after an early season UU hoops game and gave all comers one chance to make a free throw for a free six-pack of soda; all kinds of people, including myself, were making the shot.

I can’t believe that people making $millions to play ball who will potentially be in situations where free throws could win or lose a game and yet they still have dismal percentages, looking at you, Andre Roberson (32%).  If its a psychological thing there are sports psych people they could pay to help them get over it.

[Staples]

Those Coca-cola promotions were awesome, they need to bring them back.

[FtheY]

Couldn’t agree more, similar boat for my playing history as well. Free throws aren’t hard and it blows my mind how poorly NBA players shoot them. You don’t have to be a mark price to be successful, but 75% or better is more than doable. 80% or better if you’re a decent player. 

I think most young players were so much better than everyone else in their previous competition that they just played to their strengths and never developed elsewhere. Again, no excuse, but that’s the feeling I get. 

[EagleMountainUte]

I am one of the weird ones who suck at free throw shooting. I don’t practice like I should but when I did I always sucked. Yet I can make 40% of my threes in a game of pickup ball. I am more of a defend guy anyways not much of a scorer but I can have games where I score a bundle of points.

Also for taller guys it can be hard. They have huge hands. The ball is tiny compared to what we are used to. They are at a distance where they look down the net at a weird angle. I still agree as an nba athlete 70% is pretty realistic. 40% for Simmons is ridiculous. I don’t see him ever getting a shot though at this point in his career.

[chinngiskhaan]

I don’t know… I don’t buy the whole, “he has big hands, so it’s okay that he is getting paid millions to play basketball when he can’t even do the most basic skill in the game.” Argument.

It’s all about muscle memory. There are plenty of huge dudes with huge hands that don’t suck at shooting free throws. Rudy Gobert is a great example. He was terrible, he worked hard, and now he isn’t. Marc Gasol has huge hands, as does his brother, and I’m sure Kristaps Porzingis and Myles Turner have very large hands as well. The difference is, those guys ACTUALLY PRACTICE SHOOTING FREE THROWS CONSISTENTLY.

[RiseasUtes]

The guy is a great player though, at 6’10” and playing PG with that athleticism.  Wow.  Not a good shooter or FT shooter, but is good to elite already at just about everything else.  Would have loved for Mitchell to win it, but he had some tough competition this year(you can argue rookie/2nd year etc).  NBA has some great young players coming into their own and we have one of the best, I’m pretty happy about that.  

[ironman1315]

Mitchell won the player vote. I think that’s more impressive.

[EagleMountainUte]

Respect of the media vs your peers is so different.  I believe a lot of media respects Westbrook and consider him one of the best PGs in the nba. But most of his peers don’t want to play with him. If you asked me who the best guards are in the West I put Curry and Lillard as First tier. Probably Harden and Westbrook second tier more sg. 

[EagleMountainUte]

Mitchell only got 11 first place votes. It was media bias clearly. 

[Staples]

I wasn’t surprised Simmons won, but I was surprised the voting wasn’t closer.

[EagleMountainUte]

I thought maybe Tatum would have got a few first place votes. But you gotta remember it was regular season. Tatum  had the most consistent playoffs of all the rookies. I would say Mitchell next he burned out against Houston with no Rubio. Simmons showed how useless he can become in the playoffs.