Former Sixers coach weighs in on Simmons and Embiid

By Kevin McCormick, Sports Talk Philly Editor

Earlier this week former Sixers’ coach Larry Brown joined Danny Pommells and Paul Hudrick on NBC Sports Philadelphia’s “Sixers Talk” podcast. Brown coached the Sixers from 1997 to 2003. 

In the episode, they covered multiple topics from the Michael Jordan documentary currently airing, Kobe Bryant, and Allen Iverson. After diving into the past they spent some time talking about the present, and Brown had some interesting things to say about Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. 

Brown discussed Ben Simmons first. After saying that he doesn’t enjoy the way the game is played today he said he doesn’t see why Ben Simmons not shooting three-pointers is an issue. He then went on to say that Simmons is “just as good as any player in the league” and brought up all the other things that Simmons does to affect a game.   

Next, he dove into Joel Embiid and he proceeded to give the All-Star center high praise. He started by bringing up that he tried to recruit Embiid to play college at SMU where he was coaching before Embiid decided to go play for Kansas. 

Brown then went on to say that he feels that Embiid is the best big man in the league, but he would like to see a change in his game. He said he would like to see Embiid in the post more and dominate from the post and protect the paint on defense. 

He finished off talking about the two by saying that Embiid could learn a lot from the Michael Jordan documentary and his idol Kobe Bryant. Brown feels that Embiid has a lot of God-given ability and if he works hard on perfecting his craft he could be one of the most dominant players in the league right now. 

Brown gave some interesting points on the team's stars that should hold some weight. There is no doubt that Joel Embiid has the potential to be the most dominant big man in the league right now if he continues to work on his body and his game. But to say that Ben Simmons does not need to shoot the ball is a stretch. Simmons' reluctance to shoot has arguably been blown out of proportion, but in today's game if Simmons is to reach his full potential he is going to need to develop a three-point shot.