Getty Images LeBron James hugging Ben Simmons after their final game competing with each other in the East.
Ben Simmons will have a heck of a year with the Philadelphia 76ers according to ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins.
Appearing on today’s episode of the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show, Perkins gushed about Simmons’ potential.
“Doc Rivers is gonna be that guy who puts Ben Simmons on the low block and actually space Joel [Embiid],” Perkins told me.
“He’s gonna use Ben Simmons in the high pick-and-rolls and having him go to either get a deep seal where he can shoot his jump hook or be a lob threat to the basket. And then he’s gonna use Ben Simmons to be that guy playing the dunker’s spot. And then on top of that in transition… I can hear Doc right now yelling at Ben Simmons about push it, push it, push it.”
Perkins also shared insight on Doc Rivers’ uncanny ability to make Joel Embiid better by holding him accountable, calling Doc in Philly “a match made in heaven.”
While on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show, Kendrick Perkins called Ben Simmons a “baby LeBron” and praised him as a “dog” that doesn’t get enough credit.
At 6’10, Simmons is a triple double threat; almost Magic Johnson or LeBron James-like.
Crazy enough, James and Simmons are built similarly and some may argue that at times during points in his first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers and even during his tenure with the Miami Heat, James moved off the ball as a primary ball handler and shifted to small forward and power forward duties.
“You can connect your own dots” former 76ers coach Brett Brown told me of Simmons last season.
“His ability to impact the game from a scoring perspective, finding Ben Simmons at an elbow, you can’t sag and elbow”
“He’s a one dribble dunk away from that floor spot” Brown speaking about Ben Simmons working in a screen and roll.
“It opens up a variety of ways he can score.”
“He’s a two time all star, a max player and he’s 23.”
“I’ve seen a different Ben when I see him at the four and at the five,” The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Keith Pompey told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast this past summer.
“I mean, the difference is Scoop, is one of those things where if you have a traditional big on him, Ben is too fast for the guy to cover, right? If you got a small guy on him, it’s one of those things where Ben is too big and too strong. And no one talks about the three-point shot when he’s down there. Like, you don’t have to. It’s just that he does a lot of different things. So when you see that, that’s why everybody is salivating because it’s like an instant mismatch. It’s like a cheat code. You know, now again; people are going to slow things up in the playoffs, so it’s gonna take a little bit of that away, but I’m telling you; like him playing point guard is good, but he’s really a point forward so to speak, and I’m telling you I believe that it’s going to be a much improved team with him at that spot.”