Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
Everyone knows the 76ers need outside shooting to juice their offense. Ben Simmons and Dwight Howard look like they’re ready to do their part.
The Philadelphia 76ers have struggled to create a consistently efficient offense out of the Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid combination and shooting has always been the missing element. They made several moves to address it this offseason, particularly acquiring Danny Green and Seth Curry to space the floor from the wings. But for this to really work, Philly needs shooting from everywhere. And that means frontcourt players like Dwight Howard and Simmons might need to contribute.
Simmons and Howard have played a combined 44,739 regular-season minutes in their career, shooting a combined 11-of-92 from beyond the 3-point arc. If you don’t have a calculator handy that’s 12 percent 3-point shooting on an average of 0.07 attempts per 36 minutes. Suffice it to say, neither has a track record as an outside threat. And yet, here they were before the 76ers’ last preseason game hoisting up corner 3s in their warmups and looking … pretty dang good.
Both guys look remarkably accurate in the video — Simmons hits 5-of-7 and at least one of his misses is because his shot hit Howard’s ball in the air. Howard, practicing some relocation drift into the corner on his attempts, nails 6-of-7.
Ben Simmons and Dwight Howard probably aren’t going to firing up 3s in the regular season
This is fun to watch but it’s probably meaningless. Simmons has hit 3s in practice forever but still looked unbelievably reluctant to take them in actual games. Howard would probably to fire up any shot he’s allowed to but Doc Rivers isn’t drawing up plays with him spacing in the corner. To that point, they combined to play 34 minutes in Philly’s preseason win over the Celtics but neither player attempted a shot from beyond the arc.