He said who Simmons defends will determine his position more than anything.
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The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, Ben Simmons, sounds wise beyond his 19 years. Following his senior season, he was named the Naismith National Boys’ Player of the Year and Gatorade National Male Player of the Year.
“Yeah, I played pick-up with him”, Simmons said.
It was the King’s flawless: “welcome to the major league, rookie”.
Simmons signed with agent Rich Paul earlier this year, linking up with James’ management team at Klutch Sports.
Simmons also told Dan Patrick he intends to continue to wear his same No. 25 that he wore at LSU and his father preferred throughout his NBL career.
Meanwhile, Simmons’ new team-mates welcomed him to one of the NBA’s most storied franchises.
“He’s a facilitator, a distributor and he’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot”, said Bryan Colangelo, the team’s president of basketball operations.
“We talk all the time, debating how to best characterize him as a player”, Colangelo said of Simmons. We have to make sure to distribute that effort across the board and build this thing with measured steps. He’s the second player from LSU to be taken with the top pick.
Almost half the selections in the 30-pick round were worldwide players, topping the 12 global players chosen in the first round in 2013.
Others selected were Georgios Papagiannis of Greece (13th-Phoenix); Spain’s Juan Hernangomez (15th-Denver); France’s Guerschon Yabusele (16th-Boston); Ante Zizic of Croatia (23rd-Boston); Timothe Luwawu of France (24th-Philadelphia); Turkey’s Furkan Korkmaz (26th-Philadelphia); Pascal Siakam of Cameroon (27-Toronto), and Haitian Skal Labissiere (28th-Phoenix).
Simmons is ready to assume whatever role he’s asked to play, including point guard duties.
Simmons doesn’t necessarily need a position, he said confidently at his introductory press conference. So dedicated and struggling player which I can not describe. “Going forward, they can put me anywhere from the one through the five, offensively and defensively”.
He is a superb ball handler for his size and is an excellent passer.
Could the foreign flavor also be rooted in the Warriors’ style of play?
But the team and some of its past and present players are putting faith in Simmons to begin the rebuild.
The Melbourne link goes deep at the 76ers with Maine-born coach Brett Brown a former assistant at the Tigers during David Simmons’ stint. He’s very supportive of me. But I am focused on getting stronger right now.
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Ingram is the ninth Duke freshman selected in the NBA Draft, joining Corey Maggette (1999), Luol Deng (2004), Kyrie Irving (2011), Austin Rivers (2012), Jabari Parker (2014), Tyus Jones (2015), Jahlil Okafor (2015) and Justise Winslow (2015). “Last night, when I was drafted, it may have been the best day of my life”.
