Instant Trade Grab Bag 10. Ben Simmons, yes or no? & Open Thread
Instant Trade Grab Bag 10. Ben Simmons, yes or no? & Open Thread
The vultures are dive bombing Big Ben
The Vultures
After Ben Simmons had a bad 2021 playoffs, the vultures are circling for his head.
The GOLDEN Vultures
And of course, with a lot of Dub Nation proclaiming that GSW should “push all their chips in” and “not waste Steph’s prime”, people immediately started thinking about whether to get him to GSW.
Is Ben Simmons a fit for the Warriors? Why a trade wouldn’t happen, and why it shouldn’t be off the table by Marcus Thompson II
Hollinger: Ben Simmons trade seems inevitable after The Pass. But how can Sixers pull it off? by John Hollinger
The Specific Trade Proposals
Pretty much the only two possible direct trades for Ben Simmons would have at a core trading one of Draymond Green or Andrew Wiggins.
I took the instant temperature on Wiggins for Simmons, and Dub Nation says, heck NO.
Draymond for Ben Simmons makes more sense from a fit and youth (Ben is 25) perspective. (Hard to imagine Draymond and Simmons on court at the same time given their unscary shooting.)
But, Draymond has been the fire of the team for years. He is not great at 3s or FTs but he will shoot them unlike Ben, and he’s still a genius defender and passer.
It’s hard for me to imagine Daryl Excel Morey selling low on Simmons, so I don’t think this happens. But, it’s on everyone’s mind.
Also complicating the picture is the Warriors indeed got #7 and #14 picks in the draft, so you figure at least one of those is tradeable.
I think Simmons is an interesting player since he has major strengths and glaring weaknesses, and you always have to wonder how much you can amplify and mitigate those by putting a guy alongside Stephen Curry.
Problem is, any plausible way of getting Simmons on the Warriors involves giving up a guy who's already an established fit for a big unknown. So yeah, that's a no.
Best case scenario I can think of is if you view Simmons as a center and think that maybe you can get a bargain-bin Wiggins understudy who's less of a downgrade than Simmons is an upgrade at the center position. Steph+Klay+Dray+Simmons+JTA for example seems like it would be a pretty respectable lineup. Alternatively, seeing him as a younger alternative to Draymond makes sense, but you have to be assuming a pretty harsh decline from Draymond to take a gamble on Simmons.
The biggest reason I'm wary of taking Simmons is that his weaknesses (like FT%) are pretty individual, which means they're not that easy to fix by moving him to a new team. Contrast with Wiggins' perceived weaknesses before coming to the Warriors (efficiency, defense), which were pretty rapidly improved just by changing the situation, demands, and philosophy of the team he plays for.
LOL news of the morning: that weird "James Harden joining the Olympics team" (when he could barely play on that hamstring injury???) story has resolved itself: " while Brooklyn Nets star James Harden had to withdraw because of a hamstring injury". You don't say???
Linky: https://www.espn.com/olympics/basketball/story/_/id/31695035/returning-gold-medalist-kevin-durant-first-olympians-highlight-usa-basketball-roster