NBA
Former NBA Champion Andrew Bogut Believes Ben Simmons Is Afraid To Shoot Free-Throws
Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.
All posts by Zach WolpinUpdated21 Feb 2023
Ben Simmons’ time with the Brooklyn Nets so far has been less than underwhelming. The Nets thought they were trading for a player who could average at least 15 points per game and it’s been nothing close to that. He’s afraid to take layups and contested shots near the rim and it’s impacted how effective he plays. Former NBA champion Andrew Bogut knows what’s holding Simmons back at the moment; he’s afraid to shoot free-throw’s.
The 26 year old three-time all-star has been limited at times this year with injuries, missing 16 games so far this season already. Head coach Jacque Vaughn is now dealing with having to find the right rotation of players with only 24 games left this season.
Vaughn has already said publicly that Simmons is going to struggle to find consistent minutes where he fits in with the new-look Nets. After the trades of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, New York Sports Betting sites have the Nets at (+10000) to win the Finals this season.
Ben Simmons is currently averaging more fouls (3.3) than field goals made (3.2) per game.
This is a wild stat 💀 pic.twitter.com/NF1C4oERy1
— NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) February 20, 2023
What happened to Ben Simmons’ game when he came to the Brooklyn Nets?
In 42 games played for the Nets this season, Simmons averages (6.9) points, (6.3) rebounds, (6.1) assists, and (1.3) steals per game. In four seasons played with the Sixers he averages (11.6) field-goals attempted per game and that numbers has drastically dropped to just (5.6) per game.
You don’t have to be an expert to see that he’s afraid to shoot the ball near the basket. He passes up wide-open or lightly contested shots due to a lack of self-confidence to be able to shoot free-throws. That’s what former NBA champions Andrew Bogut’s theory is at least. He thinks Simmons is being unable to shoot free-throws at a high clip is what’s holding him back from being the player he once was.
“I don’t think it’s anything other than he doesn’t want to go to the free throw line. People saying he’s not playing hard or not giving effort or doesn’t look like he wants to be out there – I don’t think it’s any of that,” – Andrew Bogut
He then went on to say that Simmons could have the “yips” at the free-throw line and Bogut said it happened to him in his career as well. Having the “yips” is another way of saying your extremely nervous to do something and could be psyching yourself out. Bogut thinks this is Simmons’ issue.
