One Possession: Why playing power forward could be the key to unleashing Ben Simmons

Welcome to "One Possession!" Throughout the 2019-20 NBA season, our NBA.com Staff will break down certain possessions from certain games and peel back the curtains to reveal its bigger meaning.

Today, Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons takes the spotlight.

Context: So, Ben Simmons is a power forward now?

In case you haven't heard, 76ers head coach Brett Brown revealed that he has been playing Simmons "exclusively" at power forward, not point guard, in practices ahead of the season restart at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando later this month.

It's going to be a new look for the 76ers, but we got a taste of how it might work earlier in the season. In Philadelphia's loss to the Houston Rockets back in January, Simmons scored four of his team-high 13 baskets as the screener in pick-and-rolls, which is something we should see much more of now that he's a full-time four.

Here's why it could unleash Simmons and help the 76ers reach new heights.

The possession: Josh Richardson runs a pick-and-roll with Simmons and finds him for a dunk.

Breakdown: The five 76ers on the court are Simmons, Richardson, Furkan Korkmaz, Tobias Harris and Al Horford. The Rockets are small themselves with James Harden, Ben McLemore, Danuel House, P.J. Tucker and Isaiah Hartenstein.

With Richardson, Korkmaz, Harris and Horford each being capable 3-point shooters, they park themselves along the perimeter to maximize spacing.

Operating as Philadelphia's centre, Simmons then sets a screen on Richardson, who has the ball at the top of the 3-point line.

According to NBA.com, Richardson has been the team's primary creator in pick-and-rolls this season. He has scored on those plays at an above average rate, ranking in the 54 percentile with a 0.86 points per possession. He was in similar territory last season.

That's important because Richardson is enough of a scoring threat with the ball in his hands to draw Harden away from Simmons when he begins to roll to the basket. 

With Horford standing on the wing as opposed to the baseline, it's harder for Hartenstein — Houston's only big man on the court — to provide help at the rim. He inches closer and closer to the basket as the possession unfolds, but Hartenstein recovers when Richardson jumps in the air to make a pass to prevent Horford from getting an open 3-pointer.

House and Tucker aren't in much of a position to provide help either, as they're guarding Philadelphia's two-best 3-point shooters, Korkmaz and Harris, in the corners.

The result: Simmons catches an alley-oop from Richardson for an uncontested dunk.

Why it matters: We all know about Simmons' limitations as a shooter. Well, this is one of the ways the 76ers can overcome it.

It becomes slightly more complicated when Horford and Joel Embiid are on the court at the same time — teams will generally live with one of them settling for 3-pointers if it means they or Simmons aren't getting to the basket — but the decision to move Horford to the bench and Simmons to power forward would seem to signal that Brown is going to play no more than two of them at the same time moving forward.

With his size and athleticism, Simmons has always had the tools to be a dynamic roll man. It's just not something the 76ers have ever gone to much. According to NBA.com, he scored a total of 20 points as the roll man all of last season. While it's still making up a tiny portion of his offence, he's almost doubled that total through 54 games this season.

The efficiency obviously isn't great relative to the rest of the league, but there's only so much you can take away from that with it being such a small sample size. As Brown told the media following that Rockets game, Simmons has the potential to thrive in that role, both as a scorer and passer, almost serving as their version of Draymond Green. His passing in particular can make up for some of the spacing issues when Simmons is on the court with either Embiid or Horford because he has the vision to find them or whoever else is open when teams collapse on his rolls.

"Ben is a really good screen-setter," Brown said. "He’s physical, he embraces that side of it and he’s a dynamic roller. He’s a lob guy, he’s a catch-go guy and he can facilitate picking off corners as a passer."

Not that using Simmons more as a screener completely makes up for his inability to score outside of the paint — that is and always will be the biggest question with his game — but it's a step towards the 76ers finding a solution to one of the obstacles standing between them and the title this season. It feels long overdue, but it's better late than never.

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