The Philadelphia 76ers have been a much-improved team upon Doc Rivers’ appointment as their coach. They made a couple of interesting moves like the addition of Seth Curry and Joel Embiid is playing the best basketball of his career.
While they don’t have the talent of the Brooklyn Nets, the Sixers have proven to be a solid unit on both ends of the floor. And, even though Embiid is clearly the team’s go-to-guy, both Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris are also playing pretty well.
That’s why Rivers believes that both of them should get the nod and make the All-Star Game as reserves, as they could be putting up better numbers elsewhere but are sacrificing for the sake of the team:
“I think anybody can get numbers on a bad team. Somebody’s got to score, you know. But I think it’s hard to play well on a good team. Much harder. I don’t think people give that enough love.
We asked players on championship teams to sacrifice shots, pass the ball, play defense, you know just do some many thing to contribute to winning. And that always affects your numbers. Your numbers aren’t going to be as good, but your team wins.
Tobias can get the same number anywhere and bigger numbers if he was on a bad team. But what he is going in winning basketball. I think him and Ben should get more credit,” Rivers told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Well, clearly, Rivers has a valid point. While Simmons’ averages of 15.7 points per game may seem underwhelming for a first-overall pick, he’s also putting up 8.3 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 1.7 steals per game on 57% shooting.
Harris, on the other hand, is averaging 20.6 points with 7.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.7 three-pointers per game on 51.3/40.3/89.4 shooting splits. No one can win on its own, and those two have proven to be worthy of All-Star consideration, that’s for sure.
