Shaquille O’Neal was never regarded as a good shooter. He was never regarded as a shooter. Period. ‘The Big Aristotle’ did his damage at the rim while adding a nifty 5-foot floater into his game as well. He never needed to develop of jumpshot because of how effective he was in the paint. Clearly it worked given his 4 championships.
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When a player has an overwhelming skill like what Shaq had, you can have the luxury to neglect developing other aspects of your offensive game. Ben Simmons doesn’t have that luxury. He’s a threat in transition and can orchestrate a half-court offense but nothing about his game is ‘overwhelming’.
Developing a jumpshot is critical for him to take his game to the next level and bring more value to the Brooklyn Nets. Of course, he’s currently out for the season due to yet another injury, this time being both knee and back pain.
Shaquille O’Neal on Ben Simmons not trying to shoot
Ben Simmons was never a player who was afraid to step out beyond the arc. During his high school days at Montverde in Florida, he didn’t seem to have a problem in spreading the floor and taking jumpshots. He averaged 28 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 2,6 steals a game, all while shooting an otherworldly 70% from the field.
He drained just 29% of his threes at the high school level, making 15-51, and would stopping shooting from beyond at LSU, having not made a single one in his one and only year. He would pick up shooting jumpshots at the 2016 Summer League but once he became a fully fledged active member of the Sixers, he would once again stop shooting.
Shaquille O’Neal took to his Instagram story recently to point out the fact that Simmons stopped shooting after he had proven himself to be a top prospect in high school. The post he shared can be viewed below.
Shaquille O’Neal berated Ben Simmons for his $300,000 Gucci outfit
Shaquille O’Neal simply cannot wrap his head around the fact that Simmons suffers from anxiety when it comes to expanding his game. Ben has been on the sidelines quite a bit during his career and Shaq compared his expensive outfits to feeling anxious during a game.
“If you have anxiety shooting free throws, are you having anxiety putting on green leather and 300K worth of chain? I can understand you have anxiety in a game but when you not playing and you’re sitting on the bench and you know 300K Gucci and the big chains and rings what, do you have anxiety then?”
