Thanks a lot for the response! I know this is hella recency bias, but I am very low on Ben right now because this could be the turning point in his career where he loses all confidence and fails to make any kind of shot in his career (kind of like Fultz for a while)... or he could turn it all around and come back stronger than ever. Hoping the case is the latter, especially after you reminded me of how young he is.
Wholly agree with you, though, that if he develops any kind of consistent shot in the close-to-mid range (hook shot, floater, push shot), then his value goes up tremendously without even having to develop a consistent 3-pt shot (although I would prefer he take some really open ones like Giannis, since as you mentioned, he has the physical capability to do so).
ben is an interesting case because aside from his shot he seems to be an incredibly confident player/person, which leads me to believe he truly has never intentionally focused on working on his shot because he's never really needed to.
he's also had many games where the confidence and aggressiveness comes out, in playoff games as well - 2019 sixers-nets sticks out - which gives me a lot of hope.
Yup, he definitely seems to have doubled down on his strengths. The beauty of the NBA (and sports in general) is that there are so many ways to succeed, so it will be interesting to see how this all goes!
This was super fun to read! Thanks for being willing to be so opinionated on it. I’m all for Ben on defense, but I am curious to see him on a team like GS or Portland where he’ll be off the ball a lot more (potentially). It’s quite a salary to eat, but I hope a contender (not LAL!) decides to.
Thanks a lot for the response! I know this is hella recency bias, but I am very low on Ben right now because this could be the turning point in his career where he loses all confidence and fails to make any kind of shot in his career (kind of like Fultz for a while)... or he could turn it all around and come back stronger than ever. Hoping the case is the latter, especially after you reminded me of how young he is.
Wholly agree with you, though, that if he develops any kind of consistent shot in the close-to-mid range (hook shot, floater, push shot), then his value goes up tremendously without even having to develop a consistent 3-pt shot (although I would prefer he take some really open ones like Giannis, since as you mentioned, he has the physical capability to do so).
ben is an interesting case because aside from his shot he seems to be an incredibly confident player/person, which leads me to believe he truly has never intentionally focused on working on his shot because he's never really needed to.
he's also had many games where the confidence and aggressiveness comes out, in playoff games as well - 2019 sixers-nets sticks out - which gives me a lot of hope.
Yup, he definitely seems to have doubled down on his strengths. The beauty of the NBA (and sports in general) is that there are so many ways to succeed, so it will be interesting to see how this all goes!
This was super fun to read! Thanks for being willing to be so opinionated on it. I’m all for Ben on defense, but I am curious to see him on a team like GS or Portland where he’ll be off the ball a lot more (potentially). It’s quite a salary to eat, but I hope a contender (not LAL!) decides to.