Frankly, I would reserve the nickname “The Juice” for a player who is obviously using steroids. It’s like calling a player “The ‘Roid” or “Gym Candy”. I don’t know what it refers to in Simmons’ case since it doesn’t seem to me like he’s using steroids, but whatever it’s a reference to (perhaps his love of cranberry juice), there needs to be a new nickname for him. Something like “Simm City”, in reference to the greatest city-building video game of all time until Cities Skylines came out, would be cool. Or you could call him “Trenchcoat” because he probably would look cool wearing one, and because he’s black.
Setting aside the nickname issues for a moment, it seems like Simmons has regressed slightly this year. I never regarded him as much of a shooter so his lower percentage from three this year isn’t much of a surprise to me. Since Simmons was an old rookie (26), it’s quite possible that his prime was his rookie year and that he’s just going to get worse from this point forward. Luckily, his contract is up after this year and some team is going to pay him big bucks for playing for a team that makes everybody look good other than Stephen Jackson and T-Mac. Then he’ll average four points per game over the course of a four-year, 22-million dollar contract and that will be the end of his NBA career.
I should make a list of all the dumb predictions I make so I can look at it later and be surprised at how dumb I was.