Even with the NBA Finals going on, the talk of the basketball world has been Ben Simmons. From trade rumors to what Ben needs to improve upon, several NBA legends and analysts have weighed in on the situation. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal talked with CBS Sports recently about Ben Simmons’ free throw shooting and how Washington exposed it for the Atlanta Hawks.

“Obviously, when Joel [Embiid] got hurt, that was the game that we ended up winning. And we felt like we should have won the next game, but they just wanted it a little bit more than we did. And Joel didn’t even play that game. But at the same time, we kind of exposed the move of fouling Ben [Simmons], putting him on the line a few times. 

Granted, I think in our series, he actually made a few. So, we had to go away from that instead of just giving away free points. But they were two totally different series, two totally different teams. Ben was more or less aggressive in our series the first couple of games, and then it kind of died down and trickled down from there… It was very tough. Joel had to do a lot.”

Beal is giving Ben Simmons more credit for his foul shots against the Wizards than he deserves. Against Washington, Simmons was just 35% from the line on 28 shots while making only 33% on 45 free throws against the Hawks. 

These two series were embarrassing from Simmons, and if somehow he is around in 2021, there will need to be drastic changes. Meanwhile, numerous teams have shown interest in Ben Simmons, with Daryl Morey likely waiting for Damian Lillard to request a trade from Portland. For Beal, he was just removed from Team USA due to health and safety protocols.

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