Ben Simmons' refusal to shoot isn't an issue 80-90% of the time, but the times it is a problem happen to be the most important ones - like games against good teams and late-game situations. He's incredible when they're blowing out the Suns on a Wednesday night, but in a close game against Miami, he' can't be the guy you hand the ball to in crunch time. This is the fundamental problem with the Sixers and the reason why they've been so disappointing this year. Him not having a diverse offensive strategy, like even just a mid-range jumper, forces other players who aren't as good to carry the load late in games because he's useless when the defense tightens up and plays disciplined.
As he is now, Ben SImmons is great at carrying a crappy team to 35-40 wins and he'll fill up the stat sheet in the process. He crushes teams that don't have someone as big as him or teams who aren't smart defensive teams. But the truly elite stuff, like making a team a contender, he actually makes more difficult. I push back that he's a top 20 player because he's so difficult to construct a team around. What other NBA star could he even play with successfully? The Golden State guys, yeah, he'd be a great fit there because they're happy to play off ball. Brad Beal, sure. But I'm looking through the list and he would limit every other star to some degree because he has no value off-ball. If he played with LeBron James, we'd be sitting here saying the same things about how he doesn't fit with Embiid. Having a multitude of skills matter when you're a star because it's so crucial when you're playing with other great players and Simmons doesn't have that.
The fascination comes from the fact that Ben Simmons is, what, a top 5% NBA athlete? And if he did what Jaylen Brown did, someone who was maybe rawer as a prospect coming into league, in terms of working to improve his shot, he'd be one of the 5 the best players in the NBA, if not the best, and carrying Philly to the Championship. Instead, we're talking about trading away one of the best Bigs in the NBA who can defend at an all world level, shoot the three, post up, etc. all because Ben Simmons has nowhere to go but the dunker's spot when he doesn't have the ball.