re: Charles Barkley says Ben Simmons isn't ready for the NBA

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LSU didn't know how to pass the ball to him? bullshite. He brought the ball up on every possession, he wanted to be the point guard. That's so HE could get the assists, and show his versatility.

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Holy Jesus, you are clueless. I question whether you actually watched any games this year.

And you're really going to compare 19 year old freshman Simmons to Duncan coming out after 4 years at Wake Forest? And Kareem?

Whenever I think our fans couldn't be more clueless about basketball I'm always sent back to reality by a post like yours.

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But Ben's only 19"... I don't care.

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Well, you should. You see, players often improve their game as they get older and receive more and superior coaching and truly dedicate themselves to their craft. Add different wrinkles to it. Some call it "developing".

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And you're really going to compare 19 year old freshman Simmons to Duncan coming out after 4 years at Wake Forest? And Kareem?

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Well, yes, and I also compared him to Nikita Wilson. Don't know if you're old enough to remember him or not, but he CAME IN with a shot. A simple turnaround jumper on the baseline, he made it far more than he missed.

Nikita never made it to the NBA, because he's not the prospect Simmons is. But he damn sure had at least one reliable shot, something I would expect a kid being groomed for probably the past decade to play NBA would have.

Most kids have a good shot from practicing it way before they are 20. The problem is to get it off without someone blocking it. Ben's 6'10, I don't think he's matched up once this year against a guy that would have given him trouble on a midrange jumper. In the college game, guys tall enough to do that aren't quick enough to play 15 ft from the rim.

Ben has been preparing to play professional basketball for most of his sentient life; he went to an elite, exclusive boarding school for that reason. You'd think at some point, working on his shot would have been considered a priority.

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Once again, I'm wondering who all these dominant post players in the NBA are, especially playing the 3 and 4

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I woykdbt be surprised if his career turned out more like Chandler Parsons.
That's not a bad career, just would be in a sense the expectations are so high.

That's the comp that keeps popping in my head recently.
Putting "the next James" label on him was too much hype IMO.

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LSU didn't know how to pass the ball to him? bullshite. He brought the ball up on every possession, he wanted to be the point guard. That's so HE could get the assists, and show his versatility. Our returning point guard was benched so that Ben could run point and be surrounded by shooters, with Victor being the main paint option. If Simmons played forward, we might have seen a more consistent offense, because we would have guards being asked to do more than just spot up for the

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What is this bullshite? None of what you posted here is true. Who was the starting PG benched for Simmons?

LSU struggled all year to pass him the ball in the post. It was even highlighted by the announcers over and over again.

Charles Barkley is a tool.

LSU didn't know how to pass the ball to him? bullshite. He brought the ball up on every possession, he wanted to be the point guard. That's so HE could get the assists, and show his versatility. Our returning point guard was benched so that Ben could run point and be surrounded by shooters, with Victor being the main paint option. If Simmons played forward, we might have seen a more consistent offense, because we would have guards being asked to do more than just spot up for the 3.

I agree with this. Our team was overloaded with guards and thin on SEC caliber bigs. It's obvious where Simmons should be playing on this team. It's also obvious that someone lets him play where he wants to play. We witnessed what he could do on the inside in the N FL game. One could argue that we were playing inferior competition but I could also argue that he could have continued to develop an inside game throughout the season. Did anyone else feel that (after the N FL game) we had found where BS needed to be playing? But that didn't happen. He was allowed to continue to work on becoming the next Magic Johnson.

We should have been 10-2 at the start of SEC play with our best 5 available. Something happened to TQ and I'm thinking it was the realization that BS would be allowed to do whatever he wanted regardless of the outcome. We had options at guard but we didn't have options on the inside. Someone mentioned that JJ's failure was NOT spending more time developing Epps and Big E. I'd agree with that.

We were always going to play with a 3-G 2-F starting line-up. The only question should have been WHICH 3 guards. Simmons and Victor should have always been playing down low. JJ should have been deciding who would play PG in the preseason and he should have started with Patterson & Gray. If he didn't trust one of those 2, the next best option was TQ bringing the ball up with KH & AB at the other guards. BS would have had opportunities to showcase his ball skills on every defensive RB and in transition.

We can't blame the kid for doing exactly what he wanted. We saw signs of JJ trying to shift roles where BS would play inside. He embraced it in the No Fla game but went right back to the Magic J show after. We saw what happens when the 6-10 kid penetrates with faster college players defending. They strip the ball much more than he was accustomed in high school. Having 7 steals and 7 TO's isn't good when those stats are from your best player. You put him in a position to have the 7 steals but avoid the TO's.

BS only had one stat that would be concerning for an NBA GM? It was his TO's and maybe he isn't a PG candidate at the next level. Anyone who thinks his shot is horrible should watch him shoot every FT from this year. His form doesn't need a complete overhaul.