No. 2 disadvantage for the LA Clippers to trade for Ben Simmons: What he CAN’T do on the court
There’s no sugarcoating the fact that the LA Clippers would be acquiring a terrible shooter if they traded for Ben Simmons.
Ben Simmons is already a below average free throw shooter at 59.7%, but he somehow becomes even worse in the postseason. It gets really bad.
This year, he shot 61.3% from the free throw line. Again, below average, but he explored those depths even further and shot 34.2% from the line in the playoffs.
That’s the worst free throw shooting I’ve ever seen. That free throw percentage is almost worse than his three-point percentage from this year. And that three-point percentage is pretty bad, despite it being the best of his career.
He shot 30% from deep this year. That’s not going to fly on a sharpshooting team like the Clippers.
As the previous page in this article explains, Simmons does a lot of good on the court. But we saw this postseason when he became a running joke due to his shooting.
He became a true liability on the court for the Sixers because his free throw shooting was an easy target for other teams trying to get stops.
We don’t know if he can get out of his slump, as he’s pretty deep in it. Trading for a player who is a walking brick when fouled has its problems.