Philadelphia 76ers: Shake Milton’s March changed Ben Simmons’ future

Well, it looks like the Philadelphia 76ers have a new point guard and power forward too.

Ben Simmons has played point guard for the Philadelphia 76ers out of necessity.

Is that maybe the craziest statement you’ve ever heard? Well, not if you are Brett Brown, as he said something to the effect in his response to a question from the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey during his Orlando media availability (check out the full clip here).

… what?

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… seriously, what? First of all, that isn’t even true. Technically the Philadelphia 76ers didn’t have a legit All-Star-caliber point guard when Simmons was drafted onto the team in 2016, but that was quickly remedied with the trade up for ‘the next James Harden’ Markelle Fultz in the subsequent year’s draft.

Fun fact: Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons made their NBA debuts in the very same game, a fact that seems made up but isn’t.

Simmons is big, fast, and strong. Per Brown’s own admission, there isn’t a faster player in the NBA and when he gets the ball on a fast break, it’s a lock; two points, right into the hoop, fin.

With that being said, Simmons has never been a great half-court floor general. His passing is still elite, that’ll probably never change but his lack of a reliable jumper – let alone a 3 point shot – allows defenders to sag off in coverage, crowd the paint, and generally stifle Coach Brown’s once-free flowing offense. When the Sixers’ offense is going good, it’s usually with Simmons in the paint as a glorified four. When the Sixers’ offense is going bad, Brown usually kicks Simmons into the paint and puts the ball in a shooter’s hands.

Could, in theory, a savvy basketball mind create an explosive offense based around Simmons as a primary ball-handler? Totally. Heck, the Houston Rockets run something similar with their Russell Westbrook-plus-four shooters and no centers lineup. But when your top-two players both do their best work in the painted area, you can’t really run that high-usage, iso ball game that Mike D’Antoni has made famous.

Well, in the weirdest twist of fate, it looks like Simmons won’t have to be relied upon exclusively as a point guard when basketball returns next month, all because of a magical stretch of late-February, early-March games by a former late second-round pick.

When Simmons went out with a back injury fourish minutes into the Sixers’ February 22nd bout against the Milwaukee Bucks – a game many hoped would serve as a preview for a potential playoff series – it looked like the Sixers were done. Morale was at an all-time low, a situation made worse by Joel Embiid’s early exit from in a disgusting loss to Collin Sexton‘s Cleveland Cavaliers, and it looked like massive changes were looming just over the horizon.

Well, as it turned out, change was looming just over the horizon, only it came in the form of a 6-foot-5, 207-pound combo guard out of SMU named Malik ‘Shake’ Milton.

Taking over for Simmons at the one guard – a position he actually played pretty poorly during the previous stint in Summer League – Milton went off, scoring a career-high 39 points against the Los Angeles Clippers for the world to see on ABC and instantly becoming an overnight star; the likes of which are typically reserved for viral TikTok stars. Milton appeared on an episode of ‘The Jump‘, shot 60 percent from 3, and actually made the team watchable.

And now, in a gift from the Basketball Gods seemingly for suffering through the horror show known as 2020, we get to see how Shake and Simmons perform together in the very same offense. Buckle up Philly fans, this is going to be fun.

Now to be fair, this isn’t necessarily new news. It’s been very well documented that Al Horford was going to be coming off the bench when the season resumed, but many assumed that this move would simply kick Tobias Harris to power forward and give Brown a chance to add another wing to his starting five. Could Milton have been that wing? He almost certainly would have, but by allowing him to line up at point guard, keeping Josh Richardson at the two guard, it signifies a very specific shift in ideology that fans have been desperate to see all season.

Brett Brown has seen the error of his ways. He understands that, despite having a positive net rating with his super-sized starting five, it just wasn’t working in the way Elton Brand would have liked. Is it unconventional to have a max contract man coming off the bench in favor of a 23-year-old second-rounder on a four-year, $7.8 million deal? Most definitely, but with the season, the roster, and Brown’s coaching career in Philly on the line, why not try to get the best five players on the court at the same time?

Even after trading a trio of second-round picks for Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III, it’s clear Milton deserves the first crack at that spot.

Will Ben Simmons be happy about playing power forward? No. I don’t care what Brett Brown says in his comments to Keith Pompey, you don’t hand the keys over to a second-year second-rounder after earning a pair of All-Star appearances on the eve of starting a max contract extension, especially for a player as image-focused as Simmons. That being said, do you know what’s even better than being an All-Star point guard? Being an NBA champion point forward who will also make All-Star appearances for the foreseeable future. Winning cures all and in this last-ditch effort to get things right, Brett Brown is betting on Shake Milton’s emergence positively impacting Ben Simmons’ – and the Philadelphia 76ers’ – future.