re: Why are some fans wasting Simmons' entire tenure complaining about him?

We are 16-12

Why am I complaining? Good question, I usually don't complain about college players, I even was diplomatic about Jordan Jefferson's faults. I guess I bitch because I feel provoked to.

I'm a lifelong LSU fan, I've been watching basketball here since Macklin's teams. I've seen a lot of good players here, and on our opponent's teams.
We've been hearing the Simmons buildup for a couple of seasons prior to his arrival; the next Lebron, etc. Best player of a generation. Better (relative to sport) than Fournette. Now, note that Lebron is the best NBA player since Kobe, who was the best since Jordan. Dominant all-around guys who would embarrass you offensively 3 ways to Friday, could shut down your best offensive player if he so chose, and through sheer competitive will would elevate his team to Finals favorite, no matter who his teammates were. And it didn't take them long to establish themselves; all were recognized for what they are as rookies.

And they said the next one was coming here? Ok, I was excited to see this brilliant phenom, this heir to the NBA kingdom.

He's not. He's a fine, smooth player and all, but he isn't the next great one. He lacks offensive skills, he can't shoot. His dunks are merely decent for a 6'10 guy, he hasn't been amazing with those... and that is all he has. He rebounds well for a 6'10 guy, who has only one other guy rebounding on his team; but he's no Rodman or Michael Cage on the boards. He's a smooth passer mechanically, but nowhere near the class of a Magic, and certainly not making passes to dictate the flow of the game, defeating the opponent's defensive efforts with them.

As for competitive fire and will to victory, that's absent too. He's not been the best player on the court a whole lot of times, something you'd never see from a truly competitive great player. If/when an opponent has gone off on LSU, Simmons (a guy who should be able to guard any position in college) has not tried to contain him ever, nor has he ignited his own game to show HE'S the best out there. Oh, that guy is going to get 30 on us? Well, I'll put 40 up, and show him who's best. We haven't seen him in ONE duel, unless you count that matchup vs Skal in the Kentucky game; and he still wasn't the best player on the court, Quarterman was.
Same thing against #1 Oklahoma; Buddy went off and was the best player on the floor, and Quarterman was our best player.
Competitive fire? He's been unable to will an average college team with some effective pieces in place to success this year, in a below average conference. We've been unable to beat also-ran teams from other major conferences, and have also lost to average mid-major teams. Now, we're getting blasted by conference teams with losing records, when the games have meant the most. So show me where, exactly, is the great leadership and ability to make others better? Frankly, I've seen nothing to show me this kid is going to be the next dominant player in basketball.


So then the Simmons flunkies start chiming in with excuses and defenses: he is just a freshman. He has time to learn to shoot. Or the best one, the one that has prompted the most vitriol: you just don't understand basketball if you don't see he's the best.
I understand basketball plenty, and I understand this kid is not what he was built up to be. The emperor has no clothes.

With all the hype surrounding him coming into this year I though he could shoot a 10 foot jumper. Wasting Simmons he simply didn't live up to his hype, the guy has other skills on the court but not being able to shoot outside of a dunk or a layup is simply unexplainable to me.

I know if i was an sec coach trying to recruit i would pull up TD and show potential recruits how lsu fans treat one of the best cbb players in the country.

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I understand basketball plenty, and I understand this kid is not what he was built up to be. The emperor has no clothes.

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I mean...as a freshman he is in the top 5 for the SEC in

PPG
RPG
SPG
APG
FG%

which is pretty ridiculous

y'all can comment on his attitude or lack of taking over a game or whatever y'all want to, but the kid has been dominant all season

I have no idea what type of expectations y'all had for Simmons

call him what you want

with better coaching and better players around him, he is going to thrive

and its going to make a lot of y'all very bitter for some reason

Simmons is allowed to play pg and pf for us. He is the most ball dominant player Ive seen in a long time.

Probably the most Ive ever seen in a college game. I expect his stats to be good.

CP3 wishes he had simmons usage rate.

His most impressive attribute is rebounding. He would average 15 boards a game if he would play bully ball as a PF.

College game isnt meant for what we are doing.

Other greats like AD and melo played out of position (at center and pf) as winners. We didnt even see AD shoot at kentucky because they needed him to dominate the paint.

Lsu is just playing freelance ball, where we run sets and plays with the PF out of position constantly.

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He's the Alex Rodriguez of college basketball

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What does this even mean? I would take that as a compliment. A-Rod is one of the best baseball players of all-time.

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With all the hype surrounding him coming into this year I though he could shoot a 10 foot jumper. Wasting Simmons he simply didn't live up to his hype, the guy has other skills on the court but not being able to shoot outside of a dunk or a layup is simply unexplainable to me.

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Would you care to discuss hyped #1 picks that also struggled outside of layups/dunks but brought other things to the table?

There is a pretty good one down the road in New Orleans.