Lowe said one of the smartest things about Ben, without even watching him, "College scouts that I trust, I don't watch college basketball, but those scouts I trust, say just to ignore this recent Simmons skepticism."
A. System - Take a ball handler and tell him to play the post. A great player should be able to play in any system or role regardless of his strengths and be successful. Oscar Roberston said something like that. In his mini ESPN special, it was clear his dad didnt coach him to his size and made him run the offense, handle the ball and be a passer, not a post player. He was asked to do this to be more affective against 90% of players in college due to his skillset for his size. LSU also had 4-6 guards and only 3 bigs, no real 3's or wing players so he was asked to play a role in a system which he did for the most part and should be celebrated for. Just because he is big doesn't mean he should have been playing in the post but he still did rather well and showed skill or nack for gaining position and drawing fouls.
B. Players - Tim Quaterman has to be highlighted as one of the main problems on that team. An unintelligent, ball dominant/stopper, streaky, emotional, immature non PG if I have ever seen one. Blakeney was relatively mature steady and improved over the year as you would expect and complemented Simmons off the ball perfectly, as Quaterman should have done the whole season, waiting in the corner and taking people off the dribble on close outs. His outburst half way through the season highlighted his unease at being displaced as the man and he would follow up a goose egg with a huge night every other game depending on how felt that night. Just look at his season, what a seesaw how are you supposed to play with that if you never know what you are going to get?. He was like the anti-Simmons in terms of awareness and intelligence, emotional poise and consistency which really makes me hope he doesnt get drafted to the NBA. Victor was also extremely streaky and moody and really fell off towards the end of the season, missing bunny lay ups and open jumpers that he made earlier in the season. Hornsby was a big loss, his room mate, but what you gonna do about that. The Bench???
C. Fouls - Ben really struggled with foul trouble and Jones policy of subbing out really affected his D, especially early on which set the tone for the team on many occassions. I accept that a good defender doesn't get fouled but a post player does get fouled more than a facilitator, especially someone who is not a trained post player. Considering his usage in transition and secondary ball handler, I think the amount of fouls were slightly responsible for his defensive passivity.
D. Plays - LSU wanted to run the ball through Quarterman for some reason, so often wound up with Simmons in the post. Throughout all the games I watched I think he received the ball less in the post than he had position to do so, sometimes glaringly so. Even though they ran plays for him and he successfully got position, they failed countless times to just get him the ball, (OKLA game down the stretch!) so it was not surprising for him to have 5 or 6 attempts in the first half. Not only was he asked to play in a role that would benefit the team, he had even more difficulty in affecting the team on the offensive end as the players could not make an entry pass.
These are some of the main issues I have had with the use of Ben Simmons at LSU. All I can really do/say is praise the guy for going along with the what the coaches asked of him and being a part of the team, maybe a more valuable lesson for him than winning.
Many players go to college and have to change their game, which is why I think he should be treated like other players and respected for being a part of a system. Unfortunately the system did not work as intended on part of the coaches and the players for one reason or another.
If we take that into consideration and then just stop, look at his skillset, prowess, elegance and ability to be aware of so much of the game at any given time, then like the scouts told Lowe, just ignore this skepticism and be glad you got to see him play at LSU and look forward to him gracing the league, because he is going to be around for a long time and impress a lot of people.