The best path to weaponizing Ben Simmons on the offensive end involves minimizing his aversion to shooting, while maximizing his overpowering downhill speed. There isn’t one easy solution, but to a point, Brett Brown has succeeded in utilizing the big guard.
One play type, the pick-and-roll, Brett Brown avoids like the plague, even as it has infected today’s league like a fatal sickness. The reason Brown avoids the play is a result of fairly clear symptoms: the defender guarding Simmons comfortably goes under the impending on-ball screen, daring Simmons to shoot.
As a counter to the player diving under the screen, the former Spurs assistant calibrates the screen to a lower area of the floor: from the mid-range to the elbow, and even down to the block.