Injury to Ben Simmons Reveals Flaws in 76ers' Radical Rebuilding Process

The Philadelphia 76ers' petri dish has a new germ for us to study: Ben Simmons' fractured foot.

It might be little more than an organic, unpredictable sports injury.

Yet when it comes to the 76ers and how experimental their rebuilding process has been, closer scrutiny is warranted.

That comes with the territory when you employ radical approaches. And even if former GM Sam Hinkie undervalued how sports are more about people than business and science, the new techniques—good and bad—at least force us to look at things in different ways.

Now Simmons is hurt (projected to miss three months), and there are a myriad of topics to ponder. Let's explore some of the potential conclusions before focusing on the one that really needs to be remembered.

• The string of injuries to the 76ers' draftees is a reflection of youth sports today: players' repetitive motions from too-early specialization breaking down young bodies.

Well, maybe Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor's knees have been overworked. But Joel Embiid didn't start playing basketball until he was 15, and Simmons played plenty of Australian rules football and rugby along with basketball as a kid. 

This is really more a statement on how risky it is to invest in people with injuries—as the 76ers have done repeatedly, including going into last season with point guards Kendall Marshall and Tony Wroten recovering from torn ACLs. Other guys are inevitably going to get hurt (as in Simmons' case), so taking too many chances on injuries runs the risk of leaving too few healthy and strong bodies to compete.

• Simmons' absence creates yet another opportunity for Philadelphia to slow-play its rebuilding, being overly cautious with his health and making its 2016-17 record as bad as possible for draft positioning.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

Hopefully current GM Bryan Colangelo won't go overboard with this and will let Simmons play as soon as he safely can. These kids need to gain experience in order to learn, improve and believe in themselves at the NBA level. Again, it goes back to them being human beings, not assets.

• Simmons' broken bone, even though there is no reason to suspect complications such as what Kevin Durant or Brook Lopez wound up suffering, is yet another NBA case for the study of vitamin D deficiency weakening bones.

Robert Klapper, a Los Angeles-based orthopedic surgeon, suggested to me that an innovator should develop a glass-roof gym for basketball players to get sunlight (and vitamin D) instead of being stuck inside all the time. Multiple studies, recently summarized by Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal, have explored vitamin D deficiency and how darker pigmentation might slow vitamin D production, making it a logical basketball concern.

• Without Simmons' creative flair, the 76ers are in line to be pretty unwatchable again.

This is a big deal, because even the most devoted trust-the-process fans need to be able to consume something succulent on occasion.   

Simmons was how Philadelphia basketball was going to come alive again after all those years of strategizing, maneuvering and outright tanking. What will be beautiful about the Sixers now?

With that said, there's an interesting hidden element in all of this.

Because the 76ers have dived so wholeheartedly into this youth movement, they've also showed us one silent pitfall of rebuilding: immaturity.

Simmons' disdain for the college experience last year at LSU could be written off in various ways, but his interest in growth was undeniably limited. That's immaturity, and in some small way, so is this injury—even if the actual bad break was an organic, unpredictable part of sports.

Either Simmons for some reason exaggerated when he said rocked the weight room to gain 33 pounds in three months—buddy Dante Exum's speculation and the likely truth—or Simmons drastically added weight and altered his body mechanics at an ill-advised time (and proceeded to hurt his foot early in training camp).

"

Dante Exum today on Ben Simmons saying he put on 30-plus lbs. this summer:

“35 lbs? C’mon, Ben. C’mon, Ben…”#MUSCLEWATCH

— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) September 27, 2016"

One of the few concerns scouts had about Simmons, 20, before the draft was the mental part of his game. You could view him as unafraid of the spotlight, but others saw someone totally caught up in his own hype.

Exaggerating his physique to reporters on media day, basically his first day on the job as a pro, is an odd misstep. Hardly damning, but quite odd.

And in keeping with that particular scouting profile...

We've already seen immaturity from Embiid, and not just through the social media channels he loves. A January 2015 report by Keith Pompey of Philly.com cast doubt on Embiid's adherence to rehab, and now Simmons' absence will mean more opportunity on the court for Embiid, but also greater expectations.

We already knew before Embiid was drafted that he had red flags sprouting from his body. After two years of not playing, his struggling to make good on his awesome talent now would be even more depressing.

This is a guy for whom the game has come very easily, so it'll be interesting to see how he weathers the challenges that are headed his way now. For the sake of Sixers fans, hopefully the 22-year-old is not only great at the game, but also shows he can be good at building a professional career.

And the same goes for Simmons once he gets out there.

Let's bear in mind that Noel, 22, has been deeply frustrated for much of his three years as a pro in Philly, and Okafor, 20, acted out in unsettling ways in his vexing rookie season. But that's the risk when a team emphasizes potential over tangible progress, save for 47 total wins in the last three years.

Now, however, Philadelphia is trying to get to the stage where it can bank on the young talent to be reliable and responsible.

No one should just assume that part will go well.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.