The joint second favourite to take the award for Defensive Player of the Year this season according to the market’s DPOY betting a 76ers point guard. Ben Simmons odds:
BEN SIMMONS #25 POINT GUARD – PHILADELPHIA 76ERS
Defensive Player of the Year betting odds = 6.00
Philadelphia 76ers 6’11” (2.11m) Australian sits alongside Anthony Davis as the market’s second favourite to take the award of Defensive Player of the Year this season.
He is the only point guard to make it to the top 7.
Statistically, that makes him extremely unlikely to be awarded the title.
It has only gone to a player in that position once before in 1995 (Gary Payton #20 point guard – Seattle SuperSonics)
Ben Simmons only finishes 6th of 7 overall (just above Myles Turner) when we use our points system to analyse his numbers.
It is important to note that, due to Covid 19 protocols, Simmons played only 58 games in the NBA last season.
When we compare his stats with the top 7 favourites (according to their DPOY betting odds) we see some interesting trends.
Simmons hit 5.6 total field goals (FG) per game last season. Just over half that of category winner Antetokounmpo with 10.3.
That puts him 5th from 7 in this list. 56% of them converted almost puts him in joint second with Adebayo and Antetokounmpo.
Almost.
BEN SIMMONS’ DPOY CHANCES
Simmons is another player in this list who made zero attempts at 3-point shots last season.
As mentioned before modern teams are becoming increasingly aware of the value in all players having a 3-point shot in their arsenal.
For the team here at The Jump Hub, it is becoming more and more of a disadvantage as time passes.
At a towering height, we might expect him to get plenty of chances.
Otherwise, Simmons is straight through the middle of this pack in all his shooting stats.
He is not setting the world on fire, and struggles with accuracy from the free-throw line.
But shows that dogged consistency that we have seen impress the market so much.
We think this may account for such short Ben Simmons odds on him this season.
Given his height, we might expect to see Ben Simmons claiming more rebounds (albeit from the less obvious position of point guard) but he trails most of the pack here in that regard.
He is by no means a slouch, but this is some pretty fierce competition we’re talking about here.
He made the most assists (6.9) and steals (1.6) as we might expect for a player in his position.
Very few blocks and a fairly high cost in terms of giving the ball away (TOV – 3) spoil the stats.
But Simmons is clearly a solid performer in most categories and scored 14.3 points per game last season to cement that.
Given the unlikeliness of him winning from point guard, and his shortcomings as exposed by the numbers we have analysed here.
The team at The Jump Hub do not feel confident he will succeed and think those Defensive Player of the Year betting odds are extremely mean-spirited.
CATEGORIES WHERE SIMMONS IMPRESSED:
Assists (AST) – 6.9
Steals (STL) – 1.6
CATEGORIES WHERE HE DIDN’T IMPRESS:
3-Pointers (3P) – 0
3-Pointers Attempted (3PA) – 0
3-Pointer Percentage (3P%) – 0%
Free Throw Percentage (FT%) – 61%
Offensive Rebounds (ORB) – 1.6
Defensive Rebounds (DRB) – 5.6
Total Rebounds (TRB) – 7.2
Turnovers (TOV) – 3
*The voting for DPOY is based on the individual’s personal criteria and preferences.
So this kind of assessment can only go so far towards predicting any outcome.
Clearly, the stats do not tell the whole story of a player.
They are more a guide to certain aspects of his game and where he excels or lacks focus.
