PHILADELPHIA — Over the first nine of his 16 tumultuous months as Ben Simmons’ head coach, Doc Rivers did all he could do to turn on the charm and coax greatness from a lost and fragile soul.
No matter how many times Simmons froze up at the free-throw line or gave up the basketball when confronted with the prospect of taking a pull-up jumper, Rivers took care to mute any and all criticism of him.
He accented all the other attributes — the speed and size, the defense, the passing — that made Simmons a still-valuable player, the skills that caused observers, fans, and the 76ers themselves to keep asking an unanswerable question: How good would he be if he would just dare to shoot?
