Sixers Musings: Reacting To The Week Of Quotes and Rumors
We know what they said, but what did they really mean?
Mike O’Connor is the best O’Connor in basketball writing. Previously of The Athletic, you can find Mike on Twitter @MOConnor_NBA.
Welcome to the most optimistic time of year for every professional basketball team. Everyone is in career-best shape. Everyone has been working on their jump shots. Every player only cares about winning a championship.
Naturally, the Sixers produced a whole bunch of noteworthy quotes as they addressed the media this week, ranging in scope from what the offense could look like to what went wrong with last year’s team. Here are a few of the most eye-catching quotes and what you should take away from them.
Doc Rivers on Ben Simmons’ shooting/development
"If he takes no shots, I’m fine. If he takes 10 threes, I’m fine. If he gets to the line 15 times, I’m fine. Ben is brilliant enough for me to allow him to play and not get in his way and try to cloud his head up with a bunch of crap.”
Well, that is quite the hands-off approach. A bit different from those who were hoping that Rivers would practically chastise Simmons into becoming a 3-point shooter, isn’t it?
Look, I’m not trying to make the case that Rivers is playing some sort of manipulative head game here, but maybe he believes that the best way to get Simmons to shoot is to place absolutely no pressure on him to do it. Brett Brown’s infamous “I want one 3-point attempt per game” declaration didn’t turn out so well, so perhaps Rivers is trying the opposite.
(Of course, Brown tried plenty of hands-off approaches as well, and those didn’t work either.)
Then again, maybe Rivers just doesn’t view Simmons establishing himself as a competent jump shooter as being a realistic possibility, and he’d rather just get it out of the public discourse so he can focus on making Ben the best jumpshot-less player he can be. I wouldn’t blame him whatsoever for being of that mindset.
Regardless, I can tell you what definitely isn’t the case: that Rivers wouldn’t be absolutely ecstatic if Simmons came out launching two 3s a game and making 32 percent of them. I’m not trying to call B.S. on Rivers, but Simmons becoming a decent jump shooter would be such a game changing development that I can’t imagine he is truly this indifferent towards it happening.
Doc Rivers on Shake Milton’s role this season
"Right when I took the job, Shake is where my focus has been. I've got to let him play even freer, which is crazy… I told him I would hold him far more accountable defensively than I did for Jamal and Lou for sure, but Shake has that ability in him."
The possibility of expanding Milton’s game and playing freer offensively is something I wrote about recently. I’d be interested to see the Sixers put Shake in more pick and rolls and give him more freedom to hunt his own shot, especially on pull-up 3s.
Also, just seeing Rivers mention Milton in the same breath as Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams is telling -- those two guys have had a ton of success as sixth men under Rivers in L.A., and he seems to envision Milton having a similar role.
Rivers, by the way, isn’t the only one who has had high praise for Milton recently. Daryl Morey had this to say about him in a recent Reddit AMA:
“I think the league hasn’t caught up to how good Shake can be -- it was one of the first things Doc and I spoke about after I joined -- we are excited to see what he can do this year.”
Between an expanded offensive role, more freedom to hunt his own shot, and a coach to hold him accountable defensively, Milton has an enormous opportunity this season. It sure seems like the organization has a lot of confidence in him.
Paul George throws Doc Rivers under the bus
It’s quite hilarious that the Sixers moved on from Brett Brown due to his failure to maximize his personnel, use his players correctly, and create a culture of accountability, and have now hired a coach who was just fired for those exact same failures at his previous stop.
Just one day after an article by Jovan Buha of The Athletic dropped that detailed the Rivers and the Clippers’ fractured locker room, Paul George went on the All the Smoke podcast to essentially blame much of their woes on Rivers. Among other things, he said that he felt Rivers used him incorrectly on offense, that the team didn’t practice enough, and that they failed to adjust schematically in the playoffs. Yikes!
Here is my take: the Clippers’ implosion last year clearly falls in part on Rivers -- especially his failure to adjust in the playoffs. But as far as the locker room/culture issues go, it’s indicative of how little the coach matters in the NBA. I have no doubt that Rivers is as gifted as any coach at creating a positive culture; he is charismatic, smart, played in the league, and has the respect that comes with winning a championship. That fact that he couldn’t bring the Clippers together from a culture standpoint probably says more about the limitations of a coach than it does about Rivers’ merits.
In the NBA, your culture is simply your best player(s). Damian Lillard is Portland’s culture. Steph Curry is the Warriors’ culture. LeBron James is the Lakers’ culture. Last year, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were the Clippers’ culture, and it showed!
The same could be said of Simmons and Embiid as it pertains to the Sixers’ failings last season, for reasons that have been rehashed far too many times. Again, I think Rivers is as qualified as anyone to help Simmons and Embiid grow, and to help them in establishing a culture. But the Clippers’ failures (and those of many teams with good coaches before them) last season should be a reminder that the two most important people in the Sixers’ locker room by a country mile are Simmons and Embiid.
Simmons gives vague answer on shooting
Here’s what Simmons had to say on the topic of his jump shot:
“It’s important to make shots, but it’s more important to win. So however the winning happens, it happens.”
I know that everyone would like to hear the grabby quotes where Simmons promises to shoot and says he’s been taking 50,000 shots a day, but I actually think Simmons deserves credit for not doing so. In the past, he’s delivered more concrete statements (like last year’s “If it’s open, I’ll take it.”), and they’ve only served to hang over his head when he doesn’t end up shooting.
It’s a small thing, but I do think it’s a good move tactically for Simmons that he’s cut down on the Instagram videos, promising quotes, and whatnot. In the past, those have only set him up for more scrutiny. It seems to follow a similar sentiment to Rivers that there needs to be pressure taken off of him to shoot, which perhaps might be the thing that ultimately makes him comfortable shooting.
Simmons-Embiid pick and rolls
Rivers gave at least one hint at an offensive change to expect:
“I guarantee you we'll run more pick and rolls, and I guarantee you'll see more pick and rolls with Ben and Joel in them.”
It’s a huge positive that Rivers is committed to running more pick and rolls than Brown did, a change that I clamored for often. But I’m particularly interested in Rivers saying that he envisions more pick and rolls with Embiid and Simmons in them.
Simmons is not exactly a traditional pick and roll player, and Embiid is not exactly a traditional pick and roll dive man. Perhaps Rivers means they will double down on their “snug” or “logo” pick and rolls. Or, perhaps they’ll finally run some “Elbow Get,” for Simmons and Embiid, which I’ve been longing to see since the day they drafted Simmons.
There are certainly ways to make Simmons and Embiid an effective pick and roll duo, but it’s not something that you could build an offense around. Neither possesses the skill set that would best complement the other in those situations. Regardless, I’ll be interested to see what Rivers has in mind for those two.