Has Simmons Done Enough to Earn All-Defense Honors?

Going into the season, if you asked any NBA fan who the best defenders in the league were, you would probably hear some similar answers.

Rudy Gobert, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis, Patrick Beverley, and Joel Embiid would probably be some of the names that you would hear. Each year, there are new players who show that they also belong with the elite defenders in the NBA. One of those players this year is Ben Simmons.

Defensive Versatility

As seen in the video by Evin Gualberto, Simmons flies all over the floor defensively. He is a capable of guarding a ton of different players. Some games, Ben defends guards like James Harden. Sometimes, he ends up on wings like Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, and Pascal Siakam. He even switches onto big men like Domantas Sabonis. NBA coaches took notice of his defensive versatility. In an anonymous coaches survey by the Athletic, coaches across the league selected Ben for First Team All-Defense. The national media saw Simmons’ defensive effort as well. A few weeks ago, both Zach Lowe and Kevin Arnovitz gave Simmons high praise when selecting their NBA All-Defense teams on the Lowe Post podcast.

Help-Side Defender

One area that Simmons has been phenomenal at this season is as a help-side defender. He has an excellent sense of where to position himself off the ball. Because of this, he can use his 6’10” frame to challenge anyone driving towards the basket. Simmons also uses his long arms to wreck havoc in passing lanes. As a result, he leads the league in steals at 2.1 per game. He is also one of the league leaders in deflections per game as well. Simply put, Simmons morphed into one of the NBA’s most versatile defenders. It even shows in the degree of difficulty of his defensive assignments.

Night after night, the former first overall pick has provided a hard defensive effort. Subsequently, there is a great chance that he will be rewarded with his first All-Defense team selection. Hopefully, it will be the first of many selections for Ben during his career in Philadelphia. Maybe one day, he will even win a Defensive Player of the Year award for his efforts. For now, we will have to settle with Ben, Joel, and Matisse Thybulle creating headaches for opposing players and coaches.

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