The dream of Ben Simmons averaging a triple-double this season is getting further and further away. With every game where he decides to only grab a handful of rebounds, with every game where he doesn’t spam passes to J.J. Redick for free assists, with every game where he continues stubbornly not shooting threes, his chances at matching Westbrook’s and Roberson’s historic seasons dwindle.
He doesn’t even get that many triple-doubles anymore. It’s like he doesn’t even care about arbitrary statistical feats. What else is there to care about in basketball? Nothing. Statistical feats are all there is, and Simmons seems content to just play the game without worrying about the numbers.
24 points and 7 assists would be fine if he wasn’t the guy who was supposed to come into the league and get his triple-doubling on every night. Tell Embiid to stop grabbing (stealing) so many rebounds, tell Redick to start making shots again, you’re the leader, you’re the man on this team. You get to tell your teammates what you’re gonna do, and what you’re gonna do is pad your stats until you have 10 of each of the three main statistical categories. Every night.