Healthy Expectation
As the final week without NBA basketball draws to a close, I “A Basketball Fan” think it’s time to set some HEALTHY expectations for our favorite Boomer.
A lot of hype has been made of Ben Simmons this off-season, with videos of him finally shooting threes. It’s every middle-aged man’s wet dream, Ben Simmons with a jump shot is the most league breaking event since the KD Snake Warriors. But I’m here to ruin your fun, I’m here to say Ben being a consistent NBA average three-point shooter isn’t a reasonable goal for our supersized with extra fries point guard.
I don’t blame you for getting excited, we all have our weaknesses (mine is soft pretzels). The NBA media has been all over the Sixers in preparation for the season, with new additions like Al Horford and Josh Richardson, the reigning champs Toronto Raptors losing All-Star Kawhi Leonard, and the Bucks losing sharpshooter and fake ROY Malcolm Brogdon. Leaving the road to the NBA finals seemingly undefended.
It’s hard to not get caught up in the hype when Stephen A Smith is saying,
“The Philadelphia 76ers are going to the NBA Finals”
Magic Johnson is saying,
“It’s not really working on your game, for him it’s attitude,” said Magic Johnson. “When you’re 6-foot-9, you gotta say ‘nobody can stop me.’ Yes he’s got to get a jump shot and he will, and I think he worked hard this summer already. I think he’s gonna come back and shock everybody.”
Charles Barkley is saying,
“I’m a big Ben Simmons fan. And I want him to do like Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Keep working on his game, become a very good shooter, because if he keeps working on his jump shot, he’s going to be one of the best to ever do it,”
(whoever that is)
And what Brett Brown is saying.
Brown on Simmons’ jumper:
“It starts here and here first completely — the willingness to shoot. The time that he has invested over the course of this summer is the best by a longshot that he ever has.”— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) September 25, 2019
I mean come on, look at this idiot!
Embiid, Giannis, Kyrie, and 2 sleepers Ben Simmons and Luka Doncic
— Trey (@SlamDunkChamp_) September 24, 2019
If you haven’t guessed that idiot is me, but that shows you even I “A Basketball Fan” can be swayed by the hype.
Ben is a once in a generation talent and if one day he can become a threat from three he would be seemingly unstoppable, but that’s not a reasonable expectation from him this season.
The point of this article is to put a reasonable narrative out into the world, Philly fans don’t like reasonable they like all or nothing, boom or bust, it’s the infamous Vince Young “Dream Team” comment playing over and over again on a loop. We are currently losing our shit over the eagles lackluster first three, possibly four, weeks, we’ve already moved on from the disappointment that was the Phillies season,(or is the Phillies season, idk they play like 1000 games a season and I’m gonna be honest with y’all I can’t with baseball anymore, call me when they add trampolines.) To get back on point we as a city and as fans are constantly in a cycle of overestimating our teams sporting abilities and being disappointed with the outcome, all I want to do with this article is break that cycle.
I don’t want us to get our hopes up and be disappointed when the only progress Ben has made is a willingness to take and an ability to make a wide-open shot.
P.S. Ben Simmons will be MVP this year.
