The Philadelphia 76ers have been ousted from the NBA Playoffs after falling in Game 7 to the Atlanta Hawks at home on Sunday. Since then, there has naturally been a lot of finger-pointing and a lot of discussions on who to blame after their season ended prematurely.
The person who has bared the brunt of the criticism has been All-Star guard Ben Simmons. The 24-year old point guard only had five points on four shots in the Game 7 loss and he has continued to come up small in big moments for Philadelphia.
On top of that, Simmons only shot 34.2% from the foul line throughout the postseason as coach Doc Rivers hesitated to take him off the floor due to his ability to highly impact the game. According to a Hall of Famer, that was a mistake.
Scottie Pippen sat down with GQ Magazine and he was asked about Simmons and he had this to say about Philadelphia’s failures:
I watched a lot of games that Doc [Rivers] shouldn’t have had him in, in the fourth quarter. If I give you a deck of cards and I give you a deuce of heart and a deuce of diamond, and we playing Spades, why you keep grabbing those cards when you know you’re gonna lose in that category? This kid been this way the whole time and Doc brought him in and set him up for failure. He been like this! And you guys know he been like this. And Doc kept putting him in the game, he kept letting that team do fouls on him. Take him out the game! The Lakers did it with Shaq, and he’s bigger and more dominant and probably more fearless than Ben Simmons. Doc made him be a failure.
With that being said, Pippen also acknowledged how good of a player Simmons is. He is 24-years old and he has made an All-Star game three times while also being named to the All-Defensive First Team twice. He is that good of a player.
Pippen added:
He’s still a good basketball player. That’s his weakness: shooting the basketball. If you take that away from Ben Simmons, he got no weakness. That’s Giannis’ weakness, too. But, Giannis don’t mind being humiliated. That’s the difference between him and Ben Simmons. Giannis will go to the free throw line and shoot two fucking airballs and come right down the court the next time and try and dunk on you. If Ben Simmons miss a free throw, he gonna start passing it before he get to the free throw line on the other end. He didn’t even wanna cross half court with the basketball because he was so afraid of being humiliated going to that foul line. That’s why he didn’t try to make that dunk at the end of the game. He’s been doing it all year, bro.
Rivers expressed his belief in Simmons after the season ended and he has a plan to help him improve. Philadelphia won’t trade Simmons just to do it due to his immense talent. The right package has to come along for president Daryl Morey to really consider moving on from him.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!