Jayson Tatum and Ben Simmons are two young NBA players who came into the league with quite a lot of hype. Not only were they both considered excellent young talent with a bright future, but they were also trained individually by two of the greatest NBA players of all time.
Fans who have followed Tatum and Simmons intently over the years will know this to be true. Jayson was trained by Kobe Bryant and Ben by LeBron James. Now, a few years later, both these players appear to be incredibly different and have evolved in a unique manner. Let us take a look at how both of them have developed and how that speaks of their former trainers.
Jayson Tatum is proving to be worlds apart from Ben Simmons at this stage in their NBA careers
As NBA fans will be aware, Simmons came into the league during the 2016 NBA draft as the first pick in the draft. He was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers and partnered alongside a young Joel Embiid. At the time, Ben was an incredible passer and could push the basketball up the floor like no other player his size. Both of those attributes have been associated frequently with LeBron James over the years.
Well, it turns out that Simmons trained with King James during the early stages of his career. In fact, many regarded him as the next LeBron during his first few years in the league. However, his lack of a consistent jump shot and outside shooting ability has clearly hampered his progress over the years. Now, he barely looks like a shadow of what he used to be and some argue that the best years of his career are already behind him.
This is what training with Kobe does for a player 💪😤
Vs
Training with LeBron 😭🥱 pic.twitter.com/GMOBFvb9CH
— Suspect Sports (@suspect_sports) March 16, 2023
On the other hand, Jayson Tatum, who was drafted in 2017, was able to train with the late Kobe Bryant. As a result, Tatum’s style of play and advanced offensive arsenal has been partially credited to the training he engaged in with Bryant over the years.
Unlike Simmons, Tatum has continuously worked on his game every year and gotten better. He is coming off a trip from the NBA Finals and is currently carrying his team to hold one of the best records in his conference. Perhaps Kobe was a much better trainer when compared to LeBron.
After all, the numbers undoubtedly prove so. This season, Jayson has been averaging 30 points, 9 rebounds, and 4.7 assists. He has also been in the conversation for the MVP award and is arguably having one of the best seasons of his career. However, the same cannot be said for Simmons, who is only averaging 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists this season.
Therefore some can conclude that Bryant taught Jayson Tatum much better than LeBron has managed to teach Ben Simmons.
Discussion about this post