Damian Lillard talked Ben Simmons, NBA’s Top Defenders, and more in Reddit AMA with Gatorade
Portland Trail Blazers Damian Lillard signed an endorsement deal with Gatorade prior to the start of the 2020-21 season. Earlier this afternoon, Lillard did an AMA on Reddit under the Gatorade account, answering questions from other Reddit users about a wide variety of topics. On question in particular, brought up the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons.
Everyone can relax, it wasn’t about trade talks or the Ben Simmons soap opera / nightmare we have all been living in over the past six months. Lillard was asked who the Top 3 NBA Perimeter Defenders are in the league. Lillard responded by saying Jrue Holiday, Ben Simmons, and Lu Dort would be his Top 3 in the perimeter defense category.
Here’s the video:
The Philadelphia 76ers are 11-11 on the season and are in Atlanta tonight to face the Hawks. It’s abundantly clear that they miss Ben Simmons on the court, especially after starting the season 8-2 before going 2-7 to enter tonight’s game.
On the season, the Sixers now rank 18th in defensive rating, 11th in offensive rating, 30th in pace, in the bottom five of the league in both defensive rebounding, and 28th in offensive rebounding. That is quite the drop off compared to last season with Ben Simmons when they ranked 13th in offense, 2nd in defense, 11th in pace, and just outside the top 10 in offensive and defensive rebounding.
No one is denying the fact that Ben Simmons is in fact, one of the best defensive basketball players in the NBA. It just hurts a little bit more when Damian Lillard, who everyone wants in return for Simmons, is out there praising Ben while he wants nothing to do with the city of Philadelphia.
For the love of god, can we just get a win tonight? Cheers to the weekend.
Mandatory Credit: USA TODAY
It really isn’t “abundantly clear” how much they miss SImmons. If you were watching, they started 8-2 and arguably looked better without him. It has only been since COVID and injuries decimated the roster that things got dicey.
When Embiid is playing the 76ers are 9-3. However, we all know Embiid’s injury history and how he is certainly going to miss games. Without him, the 76ers aren’t going to win many games. There’s no way they can even maintain a .500 pace without Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid on the floor. In previous years they went an even 34-34 without Joel and with Ben Simmons.
“Abundantly clear” might be an overstep now but if Embiid continues to miss time with injuries then I think it will begin to ring more and more true as we get deeper into the season.