Ben Detrick:
Another way Simmons could placate the howling mobs would be to catapult a few 3s like Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose 17.6 percent rate from deep has the graceful touch of a Plymouth Voyager tumbling down a mountain. But Simmons is an uncompromising artist. To him, the notion of taking lousy, performative shots instead of creating better ones must seem obscenely dumb. Maybe he’s an unemotional ice queen who would rather be IG-Storying Chateau Marmont’s shakshuka with Jonathan Cheban, but he’s right.
It’s an interesting thought. I do think not being a threat from outside eight feet will be a detriment to his growth. Don’t get me wrong, if he figures it out he could be a top twenty five player to every play, but a lot of that is dependent on his shot. To be great, you have to find a way to be effective when your other best players aren’t in. Rotations, rest, injuries are all probable to occur to his teammates. If Joel goes down, if JJ is hurt, he needs to be able to dominate games with players six through ten. That will only happen if the other team actually thinks he might take and even make a jump shot.