Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons blamed himself for his horrific shooting performance during the second-round playoff series that Philadelphia dropped to the Atlanta Hawks in seven games.
Per Tim Bontemps of ESPN, 76ers coach Doc Rivers said Monday that the franchise does have a plan to help the 24-year-old improve the weakest aspect of his game after he drained a dreadful 34.2% of his free throws in postseason play.
“I believe, without going into detail with what we’re doing, I believe we know what the right work is, and the right type of work, and the right way to do it,” Rivers said when addressing Simmons’ shooting woes. “You can do the work all the time. But if it’s not done in the right way and the right type of work, you may not improve. After being here for a year, I really do believe we’ve identified what and how, and now we have to do the do part. We have to work to do it. It’s not going to be an easy job. But it’s definitely a job that Ben can do.”
Rivers added that the Sixers are “not hiding” that Simmons must be better at the charity stripe moving forward and said he’s still “very bullish” on the three-time All-Star. “But there’s work. There’s work. There is. And Ben will be willing to do it. Sometimes you have to go through stuff to see it, and be honest with it,” Rivers explained.
“Obviously what Ben just went through … I can’t imagine that. Because he has so much greatness in all the things around him that he does, and there’s areas he can fix quickly, in my opinion, and get better, that will take him to another level. And, you know, sometimes you don’t know why you’re in different places, you know what I mean? But this may be one of them, and I look at this as a great challenge, but definitely a doable one.”
