Klutch CEO Rich Paul announced that his client, Ben Simmons, would be skipping the Olympics to work on developing his game on the offensive side of the court this summer. 

While it may seem obvious that Ben Simmons does in fact need time to fix whatever the hell is wrong with him offensively, skipping the Olympics is a questionable move. 

On one side of the argument, I get it. Simmons is a mess offensively and doesn’t want to run himself back out onto the court after a disastrous performance against the Atlanta Hawks in the second round of the playoffs. If Simmons isn’t able to get his shit together, it would likely hurt his trade value on the world stage to go out on the court and run into the same struggles he faced just a few weeks ago. 

On the other side, Simmons is clearly dealing with confidence issues and a mental block that prevents him to make foul shots and shoot a basketball. If he wants to face real competition while also working on his game, there’s no better place to do it this offseason than in the Olympics against world class talent. 

I’m honestly torn on the situation. You either keep Ben Simmons in hiding where he can privately work on his game surrounded by people that he feels comfortable with, or you throw him to the wolves and let him fix whatever is bothering him mentally on the court. 

Which one is better? I think I will have to make my final decision on playing in the Olympics. We have gone through too many summers where Ben Simmons is working with Klutch in private gyms, doing things he should be doing during a game on a basketball court. 

There would be no better way to silence the worldwide criticism he has been receiving over the last few weeks than in the Olympics with Team Australia. Sounds like the wrong decision to me. I guess we’ll all just sit around and wait for workout videos or more trade rumors instead of watching Ben figure his shit out during the Olympic games, which doesn’t sound great at all. 

The circus continues. Hope Ben and his people know what they’re doing.