Zach Lowe on Simmons: "I've reached a point of empathy. He's clearly a broken player mentally. He's scared of contact. He's scared of FTs. He's scared of shooting at the basket. It's just sad to watch because we all know what this guy was as recently as 2 yrs ago. No point anymore in beating him up"

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Zach Lowe on Ben Simmons:

"I've reached a point where I just feel bad for him. I know he's making $35 million and no one's gonna actually feel bad for him. He doesn't have big problems in sort of a global sense but I've reached a point of just empathy. He's clearly a broken player mentally. He's scared of contact. He's scared of free throws. He's scared of shooting at the basket. And it's just sad to watch because we all know what this guy was as recently as two years ago. And there's no point anymore in really beating him up and beating him up and beating him up."

Jacque Vaughn benching Ben and saying things like "It's going to be some work that we have to do. Because you just take a look at what the lineups could potentially look like. You put another big next to Ben, then you got to figure out what the spacing is around him. Then if you put another playmaker next to him, then you got to figure out what Ben looks like without the basketball. Then if you go small with Ben, then you have to figure out can you rebound enough with him" is worsening the situation. How can Ben feel confident if his own coach doesn't have confidence in him? #FreeBen