Photo : Andy Lyons ( Getty ) The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Lakers 143-120 yesterday, despite star point guard Ben Simmons scoring just eight points and going 3-of-13 from the field. That should tell you just how talented the Sixers are, and also why so much of the postgame talk centered around Simmons’s jump shot. Advertisement The Lakers’ defense played off Simmons all night, as most teams do, daring him to shoot from outside. At the start of the second half, Simmons finally obliged and fired up just his third three-point attempt of the season: What’s more interesting than the shot itself is how much Sixers head coach Brett Brown wanted to talk about it after the game. Brown came right out and said that Simmons’s inability to shoot from deep could harm them in the playoffs, and said that he wants his big guard to spend the last third of the season developing a reliable three-point shot: “We’ve talked about this a lot, and I thought it looked good,” Brown said. “The shot looked good. The rhythm of it looked good. It was close to going in. He didn’t look uncomfortable shooting it. And he can tell you the story if he chooses, but he and I spoke about this notion for a little bit in the last 24 hours. What’s going to happen in the third third of the regular season? What can we do to prepare you for the playoffs, and what’s coming? “We all saw to an extreme LeBron not guard him, and we all have memories of the Celtics series, so somewhere in the middle, we have a window of 27 or whatever amount of games left, and I’d like to try some of this stuff in the final games here before the All-Star break and take off with it for the final third. It’s a long explanation to your question, but the underbelly of the reason is significant.” Brown is right to believe that Simmons suddenly developing a jumper would be a boon for his team, but it seems slightly misguided to task his historically jumper-averse star with finding a shot over the last 26 games of the season. A willingness to shoot threes isn’t going to help Simmons or the Sixers that much in the playoffs unless some of those threes actually, you know, go in the hoop. Turning a guy who is 0-for-14 lifetime from three into a real threat feels like a longterm project that should span an offseason or two, not something that can be figured out through twiddling around with a shot during some late-season games. The Sixers were good as hell before making a move for Tobias Harris at the trade deadline, and in the two games since then they’ve looked even better. They beat the Nuggets last Friday even though Joel Embiid played terribly, and they pasted the Lakers last night with Simmons unable to get a bucket. Simmons’s busted shot was much more of a problem when it looked like he was destined to share the floor with Markelle Fultz, but now he’s got dead-eyes in Harris and J.J. Redick in constant orbit. Simmons will need some form of a reliable jumper at some point in his career, but for this season the best thing to do may be letting him be who he is—a gigantic point guard with fantastic vision surrounded by shooters—rather than ask him to jigger a three-point shot on the fly.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Lakers — whether it be LeBron James, general manager Rob Pelinka or Magic Johnson — have shown they are willing to either disregard or at least bend the heck out of NBA rules on tampering. The league, naturally, has an interest in trying to make sure that situation doesn’t spiral out of control. However, if the NBA decides to sanction Johnson for his most recent comments, it would be a major overstep. Johnson was asked Sunday about Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons, and responded by revealing that Simmons had reached out to ask about the possibility of the pair meeting up over the summer to seek guidance and insight into playing the position. "He reached out to me, not to me directly, to the Lakers, to find out if we can get together this summer," Johnson told reporters. "I said, 'Hey, you got to clear it with the league and everybody, the Sixers sign off, we sign off, the league signs off.' There is nothing going on, but he wants to know how to play the position as a big guard (etcetera), fine, I will do that, but if everybody doesn’t sign off we can’t get together." Given that Simmons is a hugely talented and oversized point guard, and Johnson is the best player ever to fit that description, such a meeting would make sense for an ambitious young player. Problem is ... Johnson is president of the Lakers, and the league is watching everything the Lakers do or say, very, very closely. Simmons is represented by Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, and the league is hot on his tail, too. This all comes directly following the as-yet-unresolved Anthony Davis saga. James sailed close to the wind when he said it would be "amazing" to play with Davis, then Paul got Davis pinged with a $50,000 fine for revealing publicly that his client wanted to be traded from New Orleans. Pelinka landed the Lakers a $500,000 fine in 2017 for unauthorized contact with a representative of Paul George. Without a doubt, the Lakers’ key staff members should not be allowed to do or say whatever they like. The 76ers were understandably unhappy, with general manager Elton Brand saying he had refused permission for a Simmons/Johnson meeting. Simmons can be forgiven for wanting to better himself, but this ruckus is predominantly of his making, by not going to his own team first to check if it would be OK. The NBA should look into it, but any punishment here would be opening a can of worms. The Lakers released a statement late Monday that confirmed the Sixers made the request in an email in November, but Pelinka would allow it only if the Sixers "gave written pre-approval. That was the end of the matter." Yes, Johnson didn’t have to bring it up, and if he hadn’t, the information might not have come out. But where should the line be drawn? Can he shake hands and say "Hello" to rival team players when they walk the Staples Center corridors after games? Johnson said he would be willing to meet Simmons if it was allowed. It isn’t, so presumably he won’t. Unless and until that is flouted, that should be the end of the issue. League rules forbid "expressing an interest" in another team’s player, wording so vague as to be a potential catch-all. If the league uses it to catch Johnson, in this case, it would be making a mistake. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Martin Rogers on Twitter @RogersJourno.<doc-sep>Chris Szagola/Associated Press Philadelphia 76ers general manager Elton Brand said he already shut down any possibility of star point guard Ben Simmons picking the brain of NBA Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers team president Magic Johnson during this offseason. "Rob Pelinka called me and said that Ben (Simmons) wanted to talk to Hall of Famers after the season, Magic was on the list," Brand told 97.5 The Fanatic. "He asked for authorization... I said no. This was over a month ago." On Sunday, Johnson revealed Simmons wanted to pick his brain on some trade secrets about being a big point guard, per Marc Stein of the New York Times: Johnson also praised Simmons' game: If it felt like Johnson was dancing around some tampering infractions, Brand's stance on Simmons not speaking with Johnson shouldn't come as a surprise. Videos you might like Sure, from a purely basketball standpoint, Simmons should want to talk to an NBA legend like Johnson. But from a business standpoint, the Sixers are justified in not wanting one of their players to talk basketball with another team's executive, especially one who has already committed tampering on more than one occasion in the past. The Lakers were also all but accused of tampering by the New Orleans Pelicans after Anthony Davis demanded a trade this season. The precedent for the Lakers tampering, as the organization looks to pair LeBron James with a superstar, has been set. Yes, Simmons will likely remain in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future and is eligible to sign a major extension this summer. But as the Davis situation showed, players aren't afraid to make a push to leave an organization, and Los Angeles has always been a destination organization. Johnson may claim he only wants to offer Simmons advice, but history suggests he'd probably have a hard time not making a sales pitch, too.<doc-sep>
Fernando Medina/Getty Images There aren't many point guards in the mold of Ben Simmons, a 6'10", elite athlete who is just as comfortable in the post as he is initiating the fast break. But Magic Johnson is one of them, and the Los Angeles Lakers president told reporters Sunday, ahead of the team's matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers, that Simmons "wants to sit down with him this summer to trade some 'big guard' secrets if the Sixers, Lakers and the league office all sign off," according to Marc Stein of the New York Times. Johnson also praised Simmons' game: Without approval, Johnson chatting up Simmons would be tampering. And given that Simmons is represented by Klutch Sports—which also represents LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the latter of whom the Lakers made serious efforts to acquire before the NBA trade deadline Thursday, to no avail—the Sixers may not be thrilled with such conversations. The Lakers and Johnson have been fined on more than one occasion for tampering—and the Pelicans asked the NBA to investigate for tampering when Davis first announced his desire to be traded—so the organization is plenty familiar with the infraction at this point. That could be another factor in whatever decision the Sixers make regarding any conversations. Take away the obvious tampering concerns, of course, and Simmons could learn a lot from Johnson, a Hall of Fame point guard who is one of the game's legends. Johnson was versatile enough to play any position on the court, was one of the best passers in the game's history and developed a solid jumper over time. Video Play Button Videos you might like Simmons, to this point, doesn't have much of a jumper at all. But he can get to the rim against most defenders, is a natural passer and playmaker, and is an underrated defender given his length and athleticism. If that jumper develops, he'll be a menace. As it stands, he's one of the game's brightest young talents, and in most cases it would be completely natural for him to seek the advice of a former superstar. But given all of the context surrounding any potential meeting between Johnson and Simmons, it's a bit more complicated.