Ben Simmons took the NBA by storm in his first season and beat off stiff competition from Donovan Mitchell to claim the Rookie of the Year award.

His stellar contributions helped the Philadelphia 76ers secure a playoff berth for the first time since 2012.

After sitting out the entire 2016-17 campaign due to a broken foot, the Aussie returned last year and showed no ill effects from the injury.

He showed why the 76ers took him with the number one overall pick by averaging 15.8 points, 8.1 rebounds and 8.2 assists in 81 games.

With his impressive production, the Sixers secured an unlikely third-placed finish in the Eastern Conference.

A seat at the table

The 22-year-old was unfortunate to be overlooked for the All-Star game but he's keen to take his place among the league's elite next year.

“I wanna be an All-Star,” he told foxsports.com.au. “Those are the best players in the league.

"I think setting myself up for little goals like that along the way just keeps me motivated, and it keeps my goals right there.”

This is a realistic goal that the point guard will have a great chance of achieving but he also has another slightly more ambitious individual accolade in mind to follow up his ROY honour.

"I knocked off one of those (Rookie of the Year), the next one is MVP," he said, per James McKern of Sporting News.

Obvious weakness

There's nothing wrong with aiming high but for the youngster to achieve his lofty goals, he has to work on the glaring flaw in his game.

Simmons is clearly uncomfortable shooting the ball as he didn't attempt a single three-pointer all last season and shot just 56 percent from the free-throw line.

But he does acknowledge that he'll have to develop a jump shot to reach that next level as a player.

“It just depends where I wanna be later in life,” Simmons said. “I can be satisfied with 15, eight, and eight, or if I wanna be at that next level and be an All-Star, then I add something to my game.”

The former LSU product has admitted that he's spent more time on his shooting this summer than he has at any stage of his young career.

Adding this to his arsenal will make him virtually unstoppable and it'll be a scary prospect for the rest of the league if he starts knocking down threes.

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