Ben Simmons’ knee injury robs the Philadelphia 76ers of continuity… again
The Philadelphia 76ers starters just want to play together.
For the, like, 12th time this season, a Philadelphia 76ers‘ starter has suffered an injury that will all but surely disrupt their rotation moving forward.
*sigh* at this point, should we even be surprised?
Returning to the court after a relatively encouraging first half, Ben Simmons landed awkwardly on his left knee and left the court for the confines of the Sixers’ locker room. Though the play in question wasn’t particularly brutal, and Simmons was, fortunately, able to leave the court by his own power, his premature exit for a second straight game is far from encouraging, especially when you consider the long-term implications.
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Why? Well, I’m glad you asked.
If you’ve watched any of the 76ers games – scrimmage or not – during their time in the NBA Bubble, you’ve all but surely noticed Simmons’ growing pains while re-learning the Power Forward position on the fly. While, technically this isn’t a new role for Simmons, as he played power forward at LSU across from combo guard Antonio Blankney, and small forward for Montverde Academy with eventual second overall pick D’Angelo Russell, the ex-guard has almost always operated with the ball in his hands during competitive basketball, making his transition off the ball a deceptively massive one.
Had Simmons, and the rest of the Sixers’ starting five, remained healthy, these final five and change games could have served as an extended practice session for all five players to get on the same page, all the while allowing Coach Brown to sprinkle in a bevy of different reserve options to format his playoff rotation.
Instead, we get even more ‘Al Horford at the four next to Joel Embiid’ minutes, a look that is always awkward and will surely haunt many a dream in the Delaware Valley for years to come.
Gosh, first Joel Embiid, then Glenn Robinson III and Mike Scott, and now Simmons? How many minutes are the Sixers’ starting five going to play over these eight play-in games, 12?
*sigh* what else is new?
Though many will eagerly declare the Sixers’ big-‘n-tall starting five an abject failure, and curse the names of Brett Brown and Elton Brand for running out fan favorites like Robert Covington, Dario Saric, J.J. Redick, and Jimmy Butler for a collection of massive non-shooters, that statement is rather hard to back up, as we just haven’t seen enough of the look to judge it appropriately. For one reason or another, the Sixers’ most used starting five has only appeared in 23 games together thus far for a paltry 246 minutes – a fraction of the minutes played by the starting fives of the Nuggets (735), the Cavaliers (679), the Jazz (570) and even the Spurs (505).
With 500-plus minutes of action, maybe the Sixers’ -Monstar’-ting five would have jelled more efficiently or collapsed in a dramatic enough fashion to force yet another franchise-altering midseason trade to get better-fitting pieces around Embiid and Simmons.
Next. The Philadelphia 76ers could use a player like Patty Mills. dark
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Ben Simmons isn’t experiencing any swelling or pain in his left knee, which is excellent news. In theory, he could take it easy on Thursday and be right back on the court Friday evening for a 6:30 showdown with the Orlando Magic on TNT – but let’s be honest, that isn’t going to happen. No, the Philadelphia 76ers will all but surely take things easy with their star point forward and slowly work him back into the rotation to avoid an even more significant injury in an otherwise meaningless game. Realistically, that is the right call, but boy howdy is it a bummer.