Sixers' Danny Green is Confident in Ben Simmons' Shooting
Ben Simmons is one of the best young players in the NBA. At the age of 24, Simmons has achieved All-Star status twice and was named All-NBA Third Team and All-Defensive First Team just two years after being called the league's Rookie of the Year.
Last offseason, the 76ers rewarded the young star with a max contract to show their confidence in him. Yet, there are still doubters because he won't do something as simple as consistently taking routine jumpers or three-pointers as a guard.
By now, it's no secret Simmons lacked confidence in his shot. Although he doesn't need it to be recognized as an All-Star, utilizing his shot would do wonders not only for himself but also for the Sixers as a team.
Late last year, when the 76ers returned from the COVID-19 hiatus, Simmons made it clear he would step outside of his comfort zone and let it fly when necessary. Although we saw glimpses -- an injury derailed the rest of Simmons' season.
Many hope to see Simmons coming out firing off his jump shot in 2020-2021, but nobody is fooling themselves this time around. Simmons needs somebody to push him, and that person clearly wasn't on the team before. Now, veteran guard Danny Green could be that guy to get the best out of the young star.
The 33-year-old guard is confident in this young Sixers team. As he plans to join them sometime within the next couple of weeks, Green is already looking forward to pushing the team's young stars as he will come in as a well-respected veteran with three championships under his belt.
"It's my job to not only individually be better, but to as a group make us better," Green told Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports. "And that's putting confidence in the young guys, making sure they know what we need to do."
The basketball world knows Ben Simmons is a consistent jump shot away from being unstoppable -- and Danny Green believes the shot is there. "[It's going to take Ben Simmons having] confidence in himself to shoot that jump shot because I know he can do it," Green explained.
We've seen enough video evidence of Simmons in an empty gym unleashing his jumper to know that he can shoot the ball. It's just a matter of giving Simmons the confidence to do it in realtime. It's unfortunate it will take this long to get it to happen, but it seems Danny Green could be the guy to instill confidence in the young All-Star ahead of the 2020-2021 NBA season.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_
