Ben Simmons Trying To Compare His Inability To Shoot The Basketball To Giannis Is An Absolutely INSANE Move

Stacy Revere. Getty Images.

Alright, someone needs to get to Ben Simmons and beg him to stop doing shit like this. Whether it's a teammate, someone in the Nets organization, his agent, his family, his friends, I don't care who it is just please get this man to stop talking like this. It's only making things DRASTICALLY worse. If Ben spent as much time working on his jump shot as he does explaining why he doesn't need a jump shot or really any ability to shoot, we wouldn't even be having this discussion!

Do people maybe take things a little too far? Of course! Welcome to the internet! But when you've shown no signs of improvement in that department since you entered the league, people are going to make fun of you and get on you for it. If you want them to stop, improve. Practice. Show a willingness to elevate your game. Players around the league do it every single season!

But what Simmons instead decides to do is maybe one of the worst things you could possibly do in this situation or really any situation related to basketball. You bring in Giannis. Do you know how stupid you have to be to do that, especially when the topic is about work ethic and improving a weakness in your game? That's literally all Giannis does. That's why he's a fucking God. Not only that, but yeah, Giannis actually shoots! I'm pretty sure Ben had a front row seat to this

Advertisement

Over his career Giannis has attempted 1,550 3PA. Ben Simmons? 34. Not only that, but Giannis has also put in the work to improve his midrange shooting as well! Just look at the data from that zone 

2013-14: 18%

2014-15: 40%

2015-16: 33%

2016-17: 33%

2017-18: 33%

2018-19: 34%

2019-20: 38%

2020-21: 36%

2021-22: 41%

Is Giannis a "good" three point shooter? I wouldn't go that far. He's never had a season over 30% and he takes around 3-4 a game. But the fact that he has shown the ability to be willing to take AND make them over the years has helped elevate his offensive arsenal. He's become that much harder to guard because you have to be prepared for it. He puts in the time to actually improve on it, like we just saw this summer

With Simmons, you know he's never going to shoot it no matter how open he is. It's not even a threat. That's why I never understood why Simmons is like this when it comes to his shooting. He can be below league average! That's OK! 

I'm just not sure what Simmons thought was going to happen as a result of that quote. Did he think people would say 

"Oh man, Ben makes a great point! Giannis, one of the greatest basketball players in history is basically the same guy when it comes to shooting. I guess Simmons really doesn't have to put in effort or work on it!"

People DID get on Giannis for his shooting issues, so he did what Giannis does and worked his ass off at it so it could at least be respectable. That's literally the bar Simmons has to reach. Just be respectable! Not even good! And yet, he never does. Instead he complains about how people make a big deal about his lack of improvement. It's possible to appreciate what Simmons does well while also acknowledging that his shooting issues are still a major problem that ultimately limit the ceiling of whatever team he plays on. You can scheme him out of a playoff series rather easily as history has shown. I'm not so sure why this is so hard for him to understand.

Advertisement

Let this just be a lesson to any NBA player out there that maybe struggles with a certain area of their game. Under no circumstances should you ever, ever, ever compare yourself to goddamn Giannis. Especially when the topic is something you could easily work on and improve yet you never do. Giannis would never do that in a billion years.