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During the early to mid-2010s, the Philadelphia 76ers went through a strenuous rebuild that now goes by “The Process.” The phrase “Trust The Process” was a battling cry for the 76ers during their rebuild years and it remains one of Joel Embiid’s favorite things to say. Now, the 76ers are one of the best teams in the NBA, boasting the talents of future MVP winner Embiid and point guard Ben Simmons.

Ever since being drafted first overall by the 76ers in 2016, there have been a ton of expectations placed on Simmons, and rightfully so. After all, he’s a 6’11” point guard who can bully people in the paint while delivering shutdown defense on the opposite end of the floor. In fact, a few years ago, there were people saying that he was a better player than Embiid and that the 76ers should build the team around him.

Embiid and Simmons should theoretically be one of the best duos in the entire NBA. After all, Embiid was a finalist for the MVP award while Simmons was a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year. Ninety-nine percent of the time, this would be a recipe for success. This is especially true when you consider how the 76ers finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference and heading into the playoffs, they were one of the favorites to win it all. Unfortunately, if there is anything the playoffs have proven thus far, it’s that Simmons is an inconsistent offensive liability who has cost his team multiple games in the second round.

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Simply put, Simmons is a point guard and he can’t shoot the ball. Throughout the history of the NBA, there have been plenty of legendary bigs who scored a lot of points, but struggled when it came to their jump shots. Simmons is an interesting case because as a point guard, you are expected to be able to shoot three-pointers and mid-range jumpers. If you’ve followed Simmons’ career then you know how pitiful his three-point shooting has been over the years. In fact, every single summer, Simmons takes to social media to show off all the work he’s doing when it comes to his shooting, but as soon as the season starts, he goes back to his old ways. When Simmons is open for a three, he typically ends up passing the ball or running into the lane for a layup. It has gotten to the point where teams will leave him wide open because they know he’s not going to make the shot.

Throughout the regular season, these shooting woes weren’t a cause for concern because his defensive game was on a completely different level. Simmons was shutting down some of the best players in the entire league and other superstars were taking notice. In the middle of the season, Simmons declared himself the best defender in the NBA — and no one was really arguing with him about it. At the time of writing this, the Sixers were down 3-2 to the Hawks, although they eventually won Game 6 to propel themselves to a Game 7. Despite this, Simmons only had 6 points, and it was yet another dire offensive performance, where he could be seen air balling layups.

Simmons was averaging 11.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 8.4 assists in five games against the Hawks, and for a supposed star of his caliber, this simply isn’t good enough. In the three games that the Hawks have won in this series, they’ve only had margins of victory of four points or less. Had Simmons delivered more of an effort on the offensive end, this series could have been a sweep by now. Instead, there are no guarantees that the Sixers move on.

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Of course, it’s unfair to put all of the blame on Simmons — though one look at his free throw numbers will make you reconsider his status as one of the best players in the Eastern Conference. In five games, Simmons has taken 39 free throws and has only made 12 of them. A 30.8 success rate. During the regular season, Simmons was shooting at a 60 percent clip. If Simmons had made 60 percent of his shots throughout the series, he would have an extra 12 — more than enough to overcome the 76ers’ combined margin of defeat. These abysmal shooting performances have left Sixers fans confused, and quite frankly, disappointed. Simmons’ free throws are so bad that the Hawks have started treating him like Shaq. “Hack-a-Ben” has been the Hawks’ favorite defensive strategy over the last few games and it’s turned Simmons into a massive liability. 

Other star players like Giannis Antetokounmpo have also run into some shooting woes in the playoffs, although the key difference is Giannis can go 0-10 from the line and still score 30 points. As for Simmons, his stat line is consistently in triple-single territory up until the fourth quarter. For years, Simmons has been touted as the league’s next best superstar, and if things continue down this path, he’s never going to get there.

Perhaps one of the most egregious and overly-regurgitated takes about Simmons is that he is “LeBron James without a jump shot.” While some may find that to be an apt comparison, LeBron without a jump shot isn’t exactly a championship-winning player. Not to mention, you can’t just wake up one day and magically have a jump shot. This is something that Simmons will have to fix over the course of a few years, and it remains to be seen if the Sixers have the patience to wait that long. When you play point guard, there are some skills you absolutely need to possess and Simmons is missing one of the biggest ones. 

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As far as his defensive play is concerned, he is certainly elite and if he ever gets his jump shot in order, he will indisputably be among the league’s best. At the moment, his shooting ability is a massive hypothetical. Unless he starts taking over games, the 76ers could very well find themselves being the victims of early playoff exits for years.

With Game 7 against the Hawks going down on Sunday, Simmons might have the game of his life and make me look like an idiot. He could even have the run of his life and lead the 76ers to an NBA title. If that happens, I will be the first to congratulate him. For now, though, it’s not looking good.

Over the last couple of months, we have seen the decline of the Joe Budden Podcast and the lack of communication between Budden and his former co-hosts Rory & Mal. At first, Budden attempted to control the narrative surrounding the breakup, and he even claimed that Mal and Rory were ungrateful for the money they were making. In a response to Budden, Rory & Mal made it clear that they had percentage-based contracts which meant they were entitled to see the podcast’s revenue, which Joe simply wouldn’t allow.

Now, Rory & Mal have their very own podcast and on the latest episode, they had a deep conversation about business and whether or not you can work with your friends. Mal had an interesting take on the topic as he noted that friends can do business as long as they are open with each other. He also noted that Joe’s behavior has been hypocritical, especially since he labels himself a champion of creators.

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“You can’t cry about De La Soul not getting their splits on one show and then do what you did to me and Rory,” Mal said. “You can do business with friends and I think we gotta stop acting like you can’t. People love to say ‘don’t mix business with friends.’ You can absolutely do business with friends. It’s just conversations, it’s just transparency, it’s just honesty.”

While the Joe Budden Podcast might be a shell of its former self, Rory & Mal seem to be thriving right now, and it’s great to see them succeed on their own. It will be interesting to see what kind of content they produce in the near future.

Over the last few years, numerous rappers have been contemplating the possibility of getting into the boxing ring for some real fights. Much of this started with Soulja Boy who challenged Chris Brown to a fight. Eventually, the fight never happened although many celebrities continued to train in the ring, just in case something ever popped off. With celebrity fights becoming more popular, it seems like more and more rappers are taking boxing seriously, and Meek Mill seems to be one of them.

Recently, Meek made his way to the ring where he could be seen putting in some serious work. In the clip below, Meek can be found in the ring throwing punches while working on his accuracy. His punches seemed to land decently hard, and it was very much like what we saw from Rick Ross recently.

Unfortunately, in true Twitter fashion, Meek was roasted for his appearance in the ring, although not for the reasons you would suspect. Instead of making fun of his punches, fans were quick to make fun of his legs, which appeared to be quite skinny in proportion with the rest of his body. In fact, some fans compared him to a child, which is pretty brutal.

You can check out what people had to say about Meek’s skills, below. Also, let us know who you would like to see Meek fight in the ring.

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This year is shaping up to be a huge one for Polo G. The Chicago emcee is on pace to debut at the summit of the Billboard 200 album charts, marking his first #1 album on the chart. Its lead single “Rapstar” debuted at the top spot on the Hot 100, a telltale sign of the impending success of the project. 

Littered with appearances from the likes of DaBaby, Young Thug, Roddy Ricch, Lil Wayne, and more, early chart projections estimate the project will push a healthy 145k album-equivalent units. Nicki Minaj, who appeared on the “Martin & Gina” rapper’s summertime-ready track “For the Love of New York,” took to Twitter to give the 22-year-old his flowers. 

“CONGRATULATIONS POLO,” wrote the Young Money alum with tons of celebratory emojis. “SOOOOOO FN HAPPY FOR YOU. first #1 album. Chicago, stand TF UP. Talented & humble. Stay on ya grind boo. Make sure y’all check out the video he just dropped w|Da Baby too. Dope,” finished the rapper, giving a plug for Polo’s new video for “Party Lyfe” with DaBaby. 

Polo’s girlfriend recently revealed exactly how the rapper was able to score a coveted feature from the Queen. 

“Im not saying this to brag or for cool points,” Crystal tweeted last week (June 10). “But when I heard for the love of New York Polo asked me who should he put on there and I immediately said ‘nicki’ he gave me that look like ‘naw I don’t think she’ll do it’ I kept saying yes she will! He asked everybody for days and my answer stayed at yes she will.” 

A few weeks later, Polo got word that Nicki did end up recording the verse, and the rest is history. Congrats to Polo on securing his first #1 project. 

The summer is here and two albums that are absolutely sure to stay on rotation are Migos’ Culture III and Polo G’s Hall Of Fame. Both albums have been facing off this week in the race for the #1 album in the country but according to Hits Daily Double, it seems that Migos missed the mark by a small margin.

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The initial first-week sales projections for Migos and Polo G indicated that they’ve both be moving six figures each with their respective projects. Polo G’s Hall Of Fame was aiming towards doing 165K and 175K in its first week but those numbers decreased by about 40K. Meanwhile, Migos were expected to move 135K upon initial projections before those numbers ultimately dropped to 126K. 

The numbers are officially in and it seems that both artists sold above what they were expected to do. Polo G’s Hall Of Fame secures the top spot on the Billboard 200 this week with 146K units while Migos moved less than 138K. It’s unclear whether Migos sales were boosted by the release of the deluxe edition on Thursday which included 5 additional tracks.

Despite the victory for Polo G, he recently explained to Elliot Wilson that he isn’t focused on his album sales. “I’m only competitive talent-wise. I’m never competitive when it comes to numbers because that’s moreso a perception type of thing,” he said. “I’m only ever competitive as far as how hard I’mma go or how good that I am at doing what I do. But I never get competitive number-wise.”

As for Migos, this marks the first installment in the Culture series that hasn’t debuted at the top of the charts. However, there’s always a chance that it could claim that spot in the future. 

Which album did you prefer? Migos Culture III or Polo G’s Hall Of Fame? Sound off in the comments below. 

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Mike Tyson is known as one of the most powerful punchers in the history of boxing, and when people got into the ring with him, they feared for their lives. Interestingly enough, this fear extends well past the world of boxing, as actor Donnie Yen recently spoke about his experiences with Tyson, and how shooting a film with him was like a life or death situation. 

During the Shanghai International Film Festival, Yen spoke about the film Ip Man 3 which just so happened to feature Tyson. As Yen explained, he had some fight scenes with the star, and while he wasn’t going to get hit for real, he had this fear that Tyson could kill him with a single punch.

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“I had to treat it as a real fight in a boxing ring with him and it was a matter of life and death,” Yen said. “I couldn’t afford to be distracted in any way, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a KO, it would have cost me my life.”

At 54 years old, Tyson still has the touch when it comes to his punch, and there is no denying that he’s a legend. As for Yen, he came out of the shoot unscathed although it’s an experience he will remember for the rest of his life.

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Anderson Silva is a legend of the MMA world and at 46 years old, he remains active in the fight game. While he has lost the majority of his latest UFC matches, Silva is now looking to conquer the world of boxing. In fact, on Saturday, he will be stepping into the boxing ring against former professional boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in what should prove to be a very interesting exhibition match.

Ahead of this fight, Silva spoke to TMZ where he got to talk about his foray into boxing and what could be on the horizon for him. As Silva explains in the video below, he would actually be very interested in a fight against Jake or Logan Paul, as they are two men who seem to garner a lot of attention. The fighter knows just how important it is to attract an audience, and he has no issue with the YouTubers turned boxers.

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“In the future, everything’s possible. The Paul brothers, I respect both. There are good boys,” Silva said. “Everything’s changing in the world. People like to see the big shows, entertaining shows.”

For now, a fight against the Pauls remains unlikely although, at this point, you never know. The boxing world has felt like a simulation over the last couple of years, and this would only strengthen that claim.

[Via]