Why the 76ers Still See Ben Simmons as a Viable Draft Pick Despite No Pre-Season Tryout

The Quiet Data Behind the Noise

I watch games at midnight—not for spectacle, but for the quiet signals no one else catches. Ben Simmons didn’t participate in pre-season tryouts. That’s not a red flag; it’s a data anomaly. Most scouts measure athleticism and vertical leap, but I track defensive anticipation, spacing efficiency, and off-ball movement. His numbers don’t scream—but they whisper.

The Philadelphia Pattern

The 76ers didn’t skip him because he was flawed—they skipped him because he was complex. Their analytics team reviewed over 800 minutes of college film from his junior year at Chicago’s联合试训 sessions. He wasn’t ‘the guy’ who dominated highlight reels—he was the guy who moved without the ball like gravity itself: constant, silent, precise.

Why Now Matters

They’re not choosing Mackie or Maxey because they’re safer choices—they’re choosing them because those players fit a known profile: high effort, low noise. Simmons fits that same model: high openness in game dynamics, strong conscientiousness in data curation, moderate extraversion in deep discourse over crowd noise. His value isn’t visible—it’s calculated.

The Cold Truth

This isn’t about who showed up at combine day. It’s about who stayed invisible long enough to let the numbers speak—and then listened.

The draft is not a circus. It’s a chess match played by people who think differently.