re: Don't blame Simmons for the season

Well said op.

20 12 and 5 with no coaching as a teen still. Had he went to Duke he'd already be an immortal........he'll always be a superstar to me, just wish things woulda been different for him. Every minute was a treat, good luck Ben. We'll be watching

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quote: Every other coach in the nation would have put together a cohesive, half-court motion offense with great spacing to create driving lanes for Simmons and his teammates. Instead, Jones simply left everyone to their own devises and it did nothing but create
congestion and indecision. Rarely was there any action or screening away from the ball. On ball screens were set with no apparent purpose or plan. When teams went to a zone defense, LSU was completely befuddled. That was the case from game 1 though 32, and it's been the case for Jones' entire tenure at LSU. And just think. Offense is what LSU did well!!!! The defense was a total disaster. To just stick Simmons in the post like any other 6'10" player would have been to COMPLETELY waste his unique ability as a passer and ball handler. The problem is that LSU rarely did anything as a team to take full advantage of his skill set. At any given time, LSU had 5 guys on the court all doing their own thing. That wasn't because there were all "selfish players". It's because there was no actual plan. Simmons is going to go to the pre-draft camps and make everyone again realize why he was looked at as the top NBA prospect coming into this season and why there were comparisons to Magic and James. Over the next 3 months NBA scouts, analyst and writers are going to explain in-depth just how poor a job the LSU staff did in playing with Simmons. It's been a 5 month tear down of this kid. When he gets around people who know and can actually teach the game at a high level, people will again realize just how unique a talent he really is.

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THIS! +1,000,000

Has to accept part of the blame. Turnovers and overall lack of alpha dog metality to demand the ball has some merit.

I think that recognizing how much talent he has is part of the reason he needs to share in blame. With the level of talent he has, he needs to develop better leadership skills.

People keep on taking about what Ben is going to do in the NBA; the one thing we know with Ben in the NBA is that there is a 70%+ chance that he will be the best player on his team, and will be expected to carry them. Minnesota has seen double doubles, but they haven't seen the playoffs since Garnett.

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Pre-Madonna

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No I'm sure he played after her career peaked.

Prima donna!

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I don't. This is a team sport. The head coach should be held accountable

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