The start of the NBA season tends to bring with it intense scrutiny, as fans who have missed this great sport binge on a part of their life that has been gone for far too long.
This applies even more so when analyzing two specific types of players: young players who their team has much invested in, and emerging superstars who, if they take that next step, their team could vault into legitimate contention. Luckily for Sixers fans, their favorite team is stocked with both of these archetypes. As such, Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz will be the focus of our first Likes and Dislikes column of the season.
Like: Simmons’ on-ball defense
When Simmons was out because of a Jones fracture during what would have been his rookie season, former president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo talked openly about Simmons’ ability to defend the point guard spot. Not just on switches, but for possessions, if not quarters and games, at a time.
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It sounded absurd at the time, not just because Simmons was 6-foot-10 but also because he had shown little dedication to consistently competing on the defensive side of the court during his lone season at LSU. Simmons was quick for his size and with great reflexes, but that seemed like quite the big ask.
Yet with the Sixers’ lopsided lineup and lack of true point-of-attack defenders, last year showed Colangelo to be correct in that regard. Despite their size, Simmons and Robert Covington were regularly tasked with slowing down the opposition’s lead guards, and both did so capably for most of the year.
The addition of Fultz to the Sixers’ starting lineup reduces the defensive burden on Simmons and Covington somewhat, allowing Brett Brown to turn to a switch-heavy scheme when the need calls for it, such as against Boston’s five-out lineup with Al Horford at center. Such a scheme allows the Sixers to weaponize someone who has, even in just his second season, become one of the league’s most versatile 1-on-1 defenders.
Simmons started Tuesday night’s game defending Horford, Boston’s veteran 6-foot-10 big man who is equally proficient in the post as he is bombing away on the perimeter. Second Spectrum logged 29 possessions where Simmons defended Horford, with Simmons then defending, by design, emerging star Jayson Tatum (21 possessions), Marcus Morris (17 possessions) and Gordon Hayward (11 possessions), while capably switching on to Terry Rozier and Kyrie Irving when the scheme called for it.
“I think that his confidence and leadership, and recognition that he can be elite defensively,” Brown said when asked where he’s seen the most growth from Simmons this year. “I feel like the league is going to look at him as an All-League defensive player, and I think that his growth from a work-ethic standpoint, and an example-setting standpoint, has grown tremendously.”
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Simmons is more than capable of having possessions like this one, where he’s attentive enough to take the one step necessary to deter the pass to the cutting Irving, then closing out under control on Hayward on the perimeter, moving his feet to deny the dribble drive then poking the ball out of bounds. It wasn’t the most physically demanding play in the world, as Hayward is still clearly working his way back to full speed, but the fact that a 6-foot-10 player is equally comfortable banging with Horford in the post as he is out on the perimeter in situations like this is very impressive, and a huge advantage for the Sixers.
With Simmons spending more time defending forwards it has placed him closer to the basket for defensive rebounding opportunities, something he’s taken advantage of to the tune of a 29.7 defensive rebounding rate, which would be great for a center, much less somebody physically capable of sticking with an elite guard like Irving on the perimeter. Like many statistics this early in the season, that rate is clearly unsustainable, but an uptick in defensive rebounding would continue to unlock Simmons’ brilliance in transition.
So far (again, two games!) Simmons leads the league in both assists per game and defensive win shares. That’s an impressively unique set of skills.
Dislike: Simmons spacing-out off the ball
For as much as Simmons has improved to become one of the league’s most versatile 1-on-1 defenders, his off-ball defense has still been very boom or bust. He’s either blowing up a Horford screen for the steal or sprinting over for a weak-side block on Aron Baynes at the rim, or he’s half-asleep and flatfooted. There are few possessions in between.
The Celtics highlighted the benefit of Simmons’ switchable on-ball defense, as the Celtics are very good at forcing the mismatch they want, with the skill up and down the lineup to take advantage of it. Simmons’ ability to hold his own when going from Horford to Tatum to Hayward and Irving is a huge benefit.
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Against the Bulls, on the other hand, if the Sixers as a team don’t make too many mistakes, they should walk away with an easy victory. In the first quarter, it seemed as if the Sixers might just be on pace to mistake away a game they had no business losing. Simmons wasn’t the only culprit on the Sixers with defensive breakdowns in the first quarter on Thursday night, but he did struggle to make the right reads and rotations during a scary 12 minutes of play.
On the play in the first clip below, Simmons has lead feet, hardly taking a step as Zach LaVine drives by. Sure, Bobby Portis was hot from the perimeter early in the game, but Simmons has the size and athleticism to easily recover, and is caught in no-man’s land too frequently in situations like this. In the second clip, he overplays a Ryan Arcidiacono pick and roll, then never makes an effort to recover and contest Portis’ shot. In the third clip, Covington and Amir Johnson trap LaVine on the perimeter, and judging by how aggressively they did so they likely anticipated help behind them, but nobody makes an effort to tag the roll man (to be fair, that was probably JJ Redick’s responsibility). Finally, Simmons gets caught with a step in the wrong direction on a slipped/faked screen, allowing an open cutting lane.
These are all minor and very correctable issues, but against Chicago Simmons was too often slow, hesitant and noncommittal in his rotations off the ball. It was his problem back at LSU, where the lazy 2-3 zone they ran exposed all of his weaknesses, while showcasing few of his strengths. But Simmons made incredible progress last year as a 1-on-1 defender who could also crash the glass and make highlight-reel plays with his size, strength, athleticism and quick-twitch reflexes.
We talk a lot about the defensive abilities of Simmons and Covington, who are both different in how they go about contributing on that end. Simmons can hold his own man-to-man against a wider set of offensive players and skill sets, but Covington is far more consistent as an off-ball defender, making the reads and rotations that Simmons often misses. In order for Simmons to make the jump into All-Defensive First Team consideration that Brown is hopeful he’ll make, he’s going to have to more consistently do the little things when playing off the ball.
Like: Fultz (occasionally) seeking out pick-and-roll jumpers
In his first two games since working to overhaul his shooting form over the summer, Fultz has looked like two different players depending on whether he has the ball in his hands or not. According to Second Spectrum, Fultz has attempted nine pull-up jump shots in two games, connecting on 44.4 percent of them. He’s only attempted three catch-and-shoot shots, none of which went in, or even came particularly close.
“We all understand Markelle is best with the ball as a point guard,” Brown said on Friday. “I’m happy if he shot 15 shots like he shot last night, with people going under the pick and roll and him rising up and shooting it. He looked good, he looked confident, he spent a summer doing that. I will live with that shot.”
On the ball, Fultz has looked far more comfortable with his role in the offense, searching out picks to get himself into the 15- to 17-foot range, his current comfort zone. This makes sense, as it was his bread and butter while at Washington, and it’s been incredibly evident so far in the early going. The results aren’t necessarily there — 44.4 percent on long two-point jump shots isn’t sustainable offense if you’re not finishing well inside (25% field-goal percentage inside of 3 feet), getting to the line (18.2% free-throw rate) or making 3-point shots — but it’s a good indication of his comfort and skill level, and a place where he can clearly grow as he hopefully returns to form.
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Dislike: Fultz killing the Sixers’ spacing when playing off the ball
Fultz’s lack of confidence as a shooter in catch-and-shoot situations has been far too obvious in the early going, and opponents have picked up on it, daring him to catch the ball and rise up confidently to make them pay. Most notable was the corner 3-point shot he passed up in the first quarter against the Bulls, a play where Fultz explained to Brown that he was off-balance when he received the pass. But it’s been obvious in just about every possession where he’s not involved in the primary action.
On many possessions, Fultz’s defender was more concerned with getting a defensive 3-second call than he was in being close enough to Fultz’s shot.
Brown doesn’t know how long he’ll give the starting lineup to figure these issues out.
“It’ll be a gut feel as much as it will be our record or stats or analytics. What I can say confidently is it’s (a change) not gonna happen immediately. I’m going to let this thing play out for a while, and I can’t even tell you a quantity of games. Is it five? Ten? Whatever. I don’t know,” Brown said on Friday. “I am committed to trying this, and trying to grow it. That’s not really an answer but that’s the best answer I can give.”
Perhaps Fultz will come out and start punishing teams for giving him so much space, but there hasn’t been much to indicate that’s in the immediate future based on his play so far, and you can be sure teams will continue to dare him to beat them from the perimeter until he forces them out of the strategy. If Fultz shows an increased comfort level off the ball, perhaps Brown will be able to stick with this starting lineup. If not, it’s hard to see Simmons and Fultz as a tenable backcourt pairing against the league’s elite defenses.
For now, Brown is going to try to find easy ways for Fultz to attack the space given to him.
“If you see some of his scores last night, it’s not a traditional thing where we’re all coached (that) point guards cover the backboard. I’m not doing that,” Brown said Friday, explaining how he can get more out of Fultz off the ball. “I think I can get some stuff out of him him playing peekaboo with Joel (Embiid), I think I can get some sneaky stuff with him crashing offensive boards with his length and height and freedom of movement, and I think in general trying to grow his corner three.”
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The offense so far has been really good in lineups when Simmons is on the court without Fultz (111.5 points per 100 possessions in 39 minutes), workable in lineups when Fultz is on the court without Simmons (97.4 in 19 minutes) and a disaster when the two have been on the court together (86.8 in 38 minutes). We’re weeks away from having enough of a sample for these numbers to have real meaning, but they’ll be something to track as the season progresses, and so far they seem to match what we’ve seen play out on the court.
(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)