Two days after that 2018 loss to the Celtics, the Sixers held exit meetings in their Camden, N.J., training facility. Each player was given a four-page document containing individualized offseason plans. For Simmons the list of priorities included free-throw shooting, finishing at the rim and developing a jump shot. In that order.
After the meetings, Brown told reporters during a press conference that he expected Simmons to spend "intense time" with Townsend over the offseason. Everyone around the team was excited. They felt like a breakthrough had occurred, that Simmons was ready not only to solidify his improvements at the line but also to begin carrying those changes over into his shooting overall.
After exit meetings, the players and coaches went their separate ways to recharge. Some time passed and, according to multiple league sources, when Townsend returned to the team’s facility Brown pulled him aside. Change of plans, he said.
Simmons’ agent, Rich Paul, and family had decided that he’d be better off working with one of his brothers, Liam, a former low-level Division I guard and assistant coach, who
now coaches at D-2 Colorado Christian University.
Brown, who'd been promoted to interim GM in the wake of former team president
Bryan Colangelo's Twitter scandal, wasn’t sure the reason for the change. It also didn’t matter.
Simmons was a former No. 1 pick, one of the team’s two foundational pieces, a genuine superstar, in talent and branding, in a league where superstars dictate the terms. In other words: Simmons wasn’t required to explain himself to management.
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