How Bradley Beal destroyed Ben Simmons' free-throw confidence

Ben Simmons has never been a good foul shooter, but it went downhill after a bet with Bradley Beal.

According to an Eastern Conference coach who spoke with Heavy Sports, former Wizards coach Scott Brooks was the first to try the strategy of intentionally fouling Simmons. He did the "Hack-a-Ben" in a game in 2017, sending Simmons to the foul line 24 times in the fourth quarter.

First, Tomas Satoransky fouled Simmons twice, and he missed three of four free throws. But when Beal fouled him, Simmons got mad. The coach described the scene:

“When that happened, Ben and Beal had this sort of animated conversation. Ben said, ‘I’m tired of you motherf*****s fouling me on purpose, man. I’m going to step up here and knock these two down. Five thousand dollars says I will.’ To which Beal replied, ‘You wanna make it 20?’ And then he went up and bricked one. I don’t think he said another word."

Simmons finished the season shooting 56 percent from the line. He peaked at 62.1 percent in 2020-21, but this year he's down to 43.9 percent on free throws.

The unnamed coach claimed that Simmons "lives in fear" of missing free throws or shooting airballs on the court. With Brooklyn, he's down to 10.4 shots per game, and shoots just 2.5 free throws, down from the 7.2-7.5 free throws he'd averaged in his last three years with the 76ers.

Practically, this means that opposing teams can play off Simmons, daring him to shoot. While he's good at making the "correct" basketball play in transition, Simmons is lost when the right play means he has to shoot the ball.

Brooklyn needs to solve this before they can move on in the post-Kevin Durant, post-Kyrie Irving era. They still owe Simmons over $78M for the next two seasons, and at this point, his trade value is next to nothing. With the emergence of Nic Claxton, they can't even hide him at center.

They're getting near the point where GM Sean Marks and owner Joe Tsai might consider a buyout. Maybe they could have Bradley Beal bet him that he won't take one.