The Sixers remain determined to convince Ben Simmons to report to training camp, Marc Stein of Substack tweets. It’s still expected that Simmons will not show up, Stein adds.
The Simmons saga has been one of the bigger storylines during the offseason. Reports surfaced three weeks ago that Simmons informed the team he wanted to be dealt and wouldn’t report to camp. He made his feelings known to team owner Josh Harris, president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, general manager Elton Brand, and head coach Doc Rivers in a meeting in Los Angeles.
Simmons has four years and nearly $147MM remaining on his contract. Philadelphia has reportedly engaged in talks with several potential suitors, including the Timberwolves, Raptors, Cavaliers, Pacers, Kings, Spurs, and Warriors. However, the Sixers have a high asking price and Simmons’ value has been diminished by his shooting woes, particularly on the perimeter and at the foul line.
Simmons, the top pick in the 2016 draft, posted career lows in scoring (14.3), rebounding (7.2), assists (6.9) and shot attempts (10.1) last season. Philadelphia is willing to work with Simmons to improve his offensive game but Simmons seems intent on a fresh start.
man why are we begging this dude to show up to camp smh let his ass stay where he at until he gets traded ♂️
A Simmons and Wall trade doesn’t sound so bad. Sure Walls massive contract scares teams away, but here you have two players potentially sitting out for the season. Both players are looking to be traded one way or another. Simmons is within the age the Rockets are looking to have. Wall is still a shooter and handle the ball offensively. He can be 76ers missing piece and is a veteran to the league. When Sixers face Miami, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee, a healthy Wall can open the court a bit. But this trade makes too much sense to make it happen.
Side note: Elton Brand has the be the least powerful person with the title “General Manager” in the NBA, no?
Well, when he had total control he made the genius decision to sign Horford to a mega deal, let butler walk (although I think butler wanted out anyway), while also trading all their assets for butler and Harris. He deserved to be fired, he is lucky he got to retain his title
Absolutely… hands down – and he knows it. That’s why he tried to run to Dallas, and almost got the job, but they gave it to the guy from Nike (Nico).
At 6’11 I wonder if Simmons could play center? His shooting % is highest from within 3ft in.
I think about that too. It depends i the PF he plays with. If he is next to a Isaiah Stewart or Porzingas who can play the 5 on D. Simmons would be phenomenal as a point center. I thought all along he should have played pf in philly. Making him a fulltime pg was a mistake that came back to haunt philly. Same with that Z Smith trade that people challenged 1.5 years ago was still a good move.
The problem with Simmons as center is, even if he’s okay defensively at the rim (not sure how much data we have on that one way or the other), he’s probably not going to be the All-NBA defensive player he is against guards and wings.
So if you play him in the middle, even if you don’t gut your interior D, you’re still depriving him of arguably his best attribute as of right now—his perimeter defense.
But similar arguments can made against him at the 4, which for some reason seems to be a popular quick-fix for Simmons.
If you nominally play him at 4 . . . he still can’t shoot, so you better have a 5 that can (and all of your wings better be able to, too). And he’s probably not going to guard the opposing 4 (because his best asset defensively is on-ball). And given his ball handling abilities you’re still probably going to have him handling the ball quite a bit too.
So he’s going to be a point 4 who’s guarding wings? Sounds a lot like what he was doing in Philly.
If it turns out Ben Simmons is an elite rim protector then great—he should be able to transition into a Draymond-like role fairly easily. But my guess is, if he was, then you would have seen more of him as a backup center in Philly.
Solid take BS69, a lot digestible and condensed very well
He sure is interesting ill say that…I first thought he’d be shuffled to a team on the brink like GSW but Im starting to think Now a start up company like Sac or Minny is where he lands….I will be following with untainted eyes wherever and am interested in his flight path in the coming years
He may be a better fit at center than at PG, but Simmons really should be used at PF where he can still get plenty of assists just like Draymond does with Golden State. Is Philly the problem here?
@Green
why put the onus on Philly? the issue is he can’t shoot from more than 3ft-5ft from the basket and his free throw shooting has gotten so bad that it’s made him timid to even attempt a shot in late 4th quarter situations. Embiid certainly belongs in the post moreso than Simmons so I wouldn’t change that. And right or wrong the perception seems that Simmons isn’t overly bothered by his inability to improve his shooting. They even hired his own brother to try and help at his behest.
Sixers are smoking some serious rose colored glasses (not to mix metaphors) if they think he’s coming to training camp. Dude’s already been paid half his salary for the season! All the incentives — and I do mean ALL of them — point toward hanging out in L.A. or wherever he’s living until he gets his way on a trade. Showing up would just create a circus, both for him and the team.
What Sixers fan don’t get or don’t want to get is that he has NO incentive to play well, as that will decrease the chance of him being traded, not increase it. At this point of the off-season, the higher his value the fewer teams are interested, and the lower chance something happens. At the beginning of the off-season, which is when he should have been traded, it’s a different story.
He should have been traded for Harden last year! Yet ANOTHER dumb move from the “processors”.
Agree 100% – I’ve been on that bandwagon since last winter.
Harden would have instantly made A) Philly a de facto contender for 3-5 years, and B) Deprived Brooklyn of their super-team and place more onus on the ever-mercurial Kyrie to actually show up to games.
Houston said no because they got offered the Brooklyn deal, Not Philly. If you’re gonna complain at least get your story right.
Lol another uptight philly fan blowing off the handle. And they wonder why Simmons is running away! Lol not to mention you are the first I heard of Houston rejecting the Harden/Simmons offer and still does not verify how serious the offer from Philly was. So I cant take your homer vision assesment on this.
It was reported by many sources that Morey thought the Houston deal was done, and then Brooklyn swooped in with the picks package. Nobody is uptight but you.
But it was still Philly’s fault for not upping their offer to Houston after the Nets basically stole Harden away from them. Right?
Also Simmons would not really fit in Houston with the Five-Out system that Silas installed when he came here. He’s incompatible.
GreenWoodPotter see, I think you are wrong on this. I see Simmons doing better than you think if Silas take him off the guards position. Forward and spot playing at center, would still give the Rockets the small ball approach with a guy who can switch out to cover the keys as an option. Having him around the rim would help guys like Green, Porter Jr, and Wood. Keeping Wood in the mix and rotating him in and out often, will keep that guy healthy. Simmons taking some of those minutes off Woods legs, isn’t a horrible idea or alternative. They are both about equal defensively and around the rim. Wood is more subjective to injury than Simmons at this point. Wall and Simmons trade looks really good right now and gives a lot of promise to be competitive once again. It opens the window of opportunity sooner
Friend, morey makes 7 figures for a reason, Simmons will sit and pay before he’s unloaded for less than his value to the Sixers and he will report as did harden if the Sixers don’t trade him . As big perk said these players don’t want to lose the lettuce.
I used to think Morey was a genius when he was the GM here in Houston after he basically stole James Harden from OKC. But since he went to Philly his credibility has taken huge hit and the Rockets are looking like they made the right decision by letting him go, even if it was just a cost-cutting move by Fertitta. His successor, Rafael Stone, has looked great so far. Especially during the recent draft.
@Green
how hard is it to steal from the Cavs and pick Jalen at #2?
From what I heard, the salary is just an advance. If he doesn’t show, he has to give it back and can be fined every day. Owners do it this way to get taxed at different periods of the year.
Traded for Harden!!!
Will he even do good anywhere after the season he had last year.
What a headache Houston avoided having to deal with Simmons wanting to be traded this year after they had to deal with Harden’s demands last year.
So he can come over weight and just be traded soon after. We seen this before. We know how it ends. Why not just trade him now . Why waste everyone time
Predict it will come out he requested a trade long ago, even before Morey, and the FO just sat on it and maybe hired Brand to influence him otherwise. That would not prevent an agent from advising him to sign an extension if offered because he would have to do the bad boy thing to get himself traded anyway. Stars are coveted, even unhappy ones.
We all know he’s a female dog. He knows it too. When you’re 6’10 to 6’11 and you’re afraid to shoot? His name is Salvatore Bonpensiero from now on. Even if he does come back to the team. And his agent Fraud Paul needs to get his behind away from Maxey’s ear.
Sorry to tell you but Maxey has given his ear, rightfully so, to Rich Paul as his agent, he owes nothing to PHI… so settle down with the hate, you just sound silly, man!
@Philly
I can guarantee you 100% that the LAST thing that ANY agent wants to do is to have a client with 4 years left on his contract cause a stink and demand a trade, especially one from a big market highly publicized team. Unlike AD, there’s nothing to be gained from this Simmons debacle and if he’s traded to Cleveland (hopefully not) or Sacramento then his prestige and endorsement value lowers. Some of you guys blame Paul but if you don’t trust me trust in greed. There’s nothing for an agent, especially one that represents so many clients, to gain by being involved in this. Once Simmons said he’d be happy to go anywhere but Philly I promise you, Paul cringed. He has no control of where he can go. Nothing to be gained. Im positive he would rather not have heard a peep from Simmons until he was 1 year away from breing a free agent.
funny reference
The 76ers are totally screwed. He doesn’t want to be with them.They don’t want him with them. And the rest of the NBA knows it. The Sixers appear to be going into camp with him. Total mess and this team has the potential to be in freefall this season.
Sixers are merely trying to regain the (public) narrative by saying “We WANT Ben… we want him here.” And, they know Ben’s not coming.
Now, when they accept the inevitable bad trade for him, it will look like they did everything they could do on their end to run it back, but “the fans don’t deserve to have someone on the team that doesn’t want to be there”, so they had to trade him – for the best package they could get.
The average fan will fall for that.
Morey’s position: *Simmons did not show, so, it was either a bad trade or a messy lawsuit.* And nobody wants that.
Agreed
Why do all of you act like this is something new.!!!! Philly has been on him about shooting. Way before the playoffs. Philly has catered to him. By letting him pretend he’s Magic. Even his FT shooting has suffered. Ben is NOT a PG ……. How is it only Sixers see that. Ben IS NOT a PG. He’s not Magic or even Bron. So why is he still playing the Point. Who’s Running this SHhhh, Show.
Ben …. all he needs to do is shoot FTs (75%) or better. No one can handle him on post or one on one. But he has to be able to knock down FTs …. That’s all. He don’t need to shoot 3s. Doesn’t mean he shouldn’t work on it. He has to be able to shoot FTs. That’s It.
Halliburton is a better PG. And he is perfect for Embiid and Harris. He doesn’t make mistakes. He shoots .409% 3PT, .857% FT. On Sixers he would be top 5 in ast in league. Why are they stalling. Run Maxey out too. Players don’t run teams. Unless you bring in GM Bron. I know nobody is running my team.
You know why Kings can move Halliburton. They have Fox and this guy ……….
link to sports.yahoo.com
Halliburton, Buddy, Bagley, #1 pick
For >>>> Ben and Maxey
Agree, but whatever its called, I would want Simmons getting out on the break, not rebounding. Simmons leads the early offense… If not available, then he can hang around the backside for putbacks and someone else be the PG.
Surely a compromise would work for him, if not Doc Rivers. So a trade is best. Brooks was too much one way, Rivers too much another.
Eric Snow (great defender) couldn’t shoot 3’s or free throws, but nobody ever said he’s not a point guard.
*he was the pg and #3 was the 2guard
Only reason, in my opinion, people say Ben is not a point guard is because he’s 6’10. If he had the exact same skills he has now, but was 6’3, 6’4 (ike Snow), everyone would call him a point guard. “Power Forward” is a game/skill-set. Ben is not a Power Forward. Rebounds per game does not make you a power forward just as assists per game, fg%, or ft% doesn’t define what is or isn’t a point guard.
Ben’s skill-set (not size) is closer to a point guard than any other position on the floor, which, unfortunately, is a blessing AND a curse for whatever team he plays for.
But to just throw him at center or power forward will get a coach fired – possibly quicker than having him at the point.
Basically, with Ben, it’s all about the players you put around him. But, you’ll get the most out of HIM if you play him at pg.
Or make/let him think he’s playing pg. (wink)
Why not just trade him to the Cavs so he can be forgotten forever. Sexton is the scoring guard Philly needs. Throw in Love to make the money work and a couple pick swaps and call it a day.
I agree. Either that or refuse to pay him, and make him sit out his entire contract, and tie it up in the courts while his career pisses away as no other NBA team can sign him while he is still technically under contract to Philly. I would punish him as severely as possible to put an end to this crybabyism once and for all.
I’m just not sure why it’s so hard. Word is Cavs are balking at the cost to acquire Simmons. Or, is it that Philly doesn’t want Love.
Seems like a no-brainer for both teams.