When the Philadelphia 76ers drafted Ben Simmons from LSU, the team received one of the best players in college Basketball. However, injuries racked the entire rookie season of Simmons and the 76ers had another losing season. The good news for the 76ers is that they received another first-round NBA Draft pick and chose Markelle Fultz. Now, entering the 2017-18 NBA season, Philadelphia looks like they have finally finished their rebuilding efforts.
Ben Simmons talks 76ers starting positions
Ben Simmons was talking to reporters after Sunday's NBA summer league game and had some surprising news about the team's roster lineup for the upcoming season.
Simmons, who was expected to play forward when he makes his debut this season, said that he will actually be the Philadelphia 76ers starting point guard.
This move will make Ben Simmons one of the tallest point guards in the NBA at 6-10. The next tallest point guard in the NBA is Shaun Livingston (6-7), the Golden State Warriors backup to Steph Curry (who stands 6-3). However, that means little because it isn't just the point guards who run offenses as LeBron James, Jimmy Butler, and DeMar DeRozan all got a lot of minutes this past season.
The second thing that this will change is the position of Markelle Fultz. In college, Fultz was a point guard and he was expected to play the same role with the Philadelphia 76ers.
However, if Ben Simmons becomes the new starting point guard, that means the team will move Fultz to the shooting guard position as a compliment to Simmons.
2017-18 Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers have been accused of throwing seasons in order to build a superstar lineup through the NBA Draft. This allowed the 76ers to draft Jahlil Okafor with the third overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Ben Simmons as the first overall pick in 2016, and Markelle Fultz with the first overall pick this year.
That gives the 76ers three of the top young stars in the NBA today.
In 2017-18, the starting lineup of the Philadelphia 76ers will see Ben Simmons as the starting point guard, Markelle Fultz as the starting shooting guard, and Jahlil Okafor as the starting center. At the moment, it looks like Robert Covington will step into Simmons' original role as small forward and Dario Saric as the power forward.
Last season, with Ben Simmons and Jahlil Okafor injured for much of the year, the Philadelphia 76ers finished with a 28-54 record. That was more wins than the 10 that they finished last year with. Now, with three of the top players in the last three NBA Drafts in their lineup, and healthy, the future could finally be here for the 76ers.
