Film Study: How Ben Simmons Turned His Season Around
What’s happened since the 4th quarter of that Celtics game?
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Ever since the fourth quarter of January 22nd’s game against the Boston Celtics, Ben Simmons has been on a tear. Before that game, Simmons was mired in an early season slump, in which he was averaging a career low 12.4 on 55.5 percent true shooting. But since then, Simmons is putting up 18.9 points per game on 65.1 percent true shooting.
Simmons has been carving up defenses left and right, upping his scoring attack in terms of both volume and efficiency. Here in this piece, I’ll try to pinpoint a few things that Simmons has done to improve his scoring attack, as well as point out some things that he could still stand to improve.
The biggest thing I’ve noticed that Simmons has improved upon is his level of aggression when seeking out driving lanes. He’s been ultra-aggressive and incredibly astute at noticing when his defender is napping in the half court. Here, he catches Mikal Bridges anticipating the dribble hand-off and blows by him.
And later in that same game, he does the same thing to Jae Crowder. Crowder thinks this is a dribble hand-off with Seth Curry, and Simmons is able to blow by him with ease.
With Simmons’ level of speed, he’s able to engage in these blow-bys with regularity. He lulls them to sleep, hits them with a quick move, and then it’s off to the races. As the season has gone on, Simmons has gotten better and better at seeking out these types of opportunities. Give him credit for having the wherewithal and the motor to make these situations happen.
Another thing that Simmons has really excelled at has been his finishing around the rim. His ability to be both deceptive and physical with his finishes has been a huge key to his success.
He has absolutely positively mastered the art of charging at a big man, decelerating, making contact, and finishing through them. Just take a look at how he initiates the contact and then washes these big men right off of him:
But again, it’s not just the raw physicality. He’s deceptive. Notice here how he throws off Marc Gasol’s timing by going up off of two feet instead of one, and then bodies up to him and draws a foul.
These types of aggressive and under control finishes are miles better than some of the things we saw on a regular basis in the first 15 or so games of the season. In that early part of the season, Simmons looked extremely hesitant to even try to finish around big men. Here, he simply opts out of attacking Kevin Love, and tries a weird dump off pass that results in a turnover.
In general, Simmons’ decision making was far too titled towards passing than finishing earlier in the year. His tendency to opt out of attacking big men, probe the middle of the floor briefly, and then throw a terrible pass was infuriating.
But what was even worse than being too pass-happy was Simmons’ absolutely mind boggling need to leave his feet before making decisions, especially at times when it’s completely unnecessary. There is no reason to leave your feet here unless you’re pulling up for a jumper:
And on this next play, you’d be better off keeping your dribble and probing around rather than throwing a pass to a nonexistent window. Simmons’ default response, for some reason, is to jump whenever there is nothing obvious to do, and that instinct needs to change.
He needs to learn the value of maintaining your dribble -- or at least not jumping. Take this play from LaMelo Ball, for example. Simmons likely would’ve picked up his dribble and jumped upon encountering a defender, but LaMelo keeps probing, and then finds an open shooter.
Fortunately for Ben, though, he has gotten better in this category as the season has gone on. Take this play, for example. He remains under control in transition, doesn’t leave his feet for a weird jump pass, maintains his dribble, and then is able to score out of isolation.
One thing, though, that unfortunately hasn’t improved much for Simmons, is his refusal to finish with his left hand around the rim. Looking through his drives that result in turnovers, an absolutely astounding number of them result from an aversion to using his left hand. This play, for example, is an obvious left handed layup, but instead it turns into a hail mary kick out pass that gets picked off.
This one could easily be a finger roll left handed layup. But instead, it’s a bizarre turnover.
This one could have been a lefty finish as well.
How Simmons is still so uncomfortable using his left hand is beyond me, especially when that’s his shooting hand. But I won’t be delving into that discussion today.
Let’s end on some positives here. I’ve loved Simmons’ aggression out of isolations lately. He’s been dusting defenders with this jab step move. And he loves freezing them with a backdown before facing them up and blowing by them.
And oh by the way, we haven’t made any mention in this piece of Simmons’ all-world caliber defense. It cannot be overstated how good Simmons has been. He is throwing top-tier NBA players in the torture chamber on a nightly basis, and he has to be considered a frontrunner for Defensive Player of the Year at this stage.
After a really concerning start to the year, Simmons looks like he’s back to being his usual self and then some. The poise, deceptiveness, and aggression with which he’s attacking the rim has been awesome to watch, and if he can continue to make some progress with his left hand as well as his decision making, we’ll be talking about a much more well rounded offensive shot creator.