It appears Ben Simmons is rejoining the Sixers. He has arrived in Philadelphia and took a COVID-19 test, as required by NBA protocols, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. The organization wants Simmons back on the court once he clears protocols, but that remains to be seen, Wojnarowski adds in another tweet.
Simmons’ return seemed imminent when Wojnarowski reported earlier Monday that 76ers team officials and Simmons’ agent Rich Paul had made progress in discussions about ending Simmons’ holdout. What’s not clear yet is whether Simmons intends to suit up or just sit out games until the team works out a trade. Wojnarowski’s earlier report indicated the front office would continue exploring the market for a potential Simmons trade.
Coach Doc Rivers said on Monday the team would “love to get him back.” Rivers also said his teammates would not hold his earlier stance of refusing to report to camp against him, Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.
“Other than those first 10 minutes of welcoming back and taking the (razzing) from your teammates about missing camp and stuff, guys want to win. They do,” Rivers said. “I’m telling you, especially if you’re on that type of team where you have a chance to win. They want to win, and they look at Ben as a guy that can help them do that.”
Simmons had a strong monetary incentive to at least show up. The three-time All-Star was losing approximately $360K for each game he missed.
He wasn’t expected to be able to recoup that money down the road and a report last week indicated that those financial ramifications were starting to hit home for Simmons and his camp. It’s unknown whether the negotiations between Paul and the club would allow Simmons to get back some of that money.
Simmons has four years left on his max contract. Things went sour during last season’s playoffs when he was reluctant to shoot and performed disastrously at the free throw line.
Hail to the King!! Banner time in Philly boyz ;)
you mean trade time in Philly
He came back to fake an injury and get paid!
Well done Rich.
good. now get on the court and play. if you want out then try and boost your trade value.
Simmons is back for money, more to come
He has no face if he plays this month
True indeed. Dude Wasn’t going to lose money for foolishness
When will it dawn on him that he should have done a Kyrie, avoided vaccination so he can sit at home and still collect his pay?
That’s how you do it. Kyrie is going to sit and relax, take his vax shot later in the year when he’s had enough rest and time to enjoy himself. Ben could have sat as long as he liked if he had the vision.
No such rule in Philly for unvaccinated players not allowed to play (at this stage). He wouldn’t be able to sit unless traded to The nets, Knicks or warriors so far
Good now give him a ticket on a puddle jumper back to Australia
We don’t want him. He surrendered his citizenship the minute he went to watch Wimbledon tennis instead of play for his country.
Can you trust him to give Philly 100% right now tho?
Yep
If he’s not the PG, he still won’t be sure what to do with his hands.
Would rather have Rhys Hoskins play point guard
can Ben pitch in the 9th?
Money TALKS…
Yawn ….. go to Kings. Get it over with. Paul sucks
How is it. He has never helped improve his shooting. How can his FT shooting get worse. Like you need Bron to tell you. This is boring ….
What?
I second this what, like is dude talking about Rich Paul?
That was incoherent
Praise baby jesus. I predict a fake soft tissue injury in 3.. 2…
Yep I agree. A fake injury is coming.
100%
I hope he stay at sixers and give his heart too. Cmon man, you are still a very good player. All nba team and defensive team arent a joke. If u really2 want out, do that in the middle of season.
If the Sixers were smart they’d use him just like the Warriors use Draymond.
“If the sixes were smart” he would have been traded before the draft.
The game of chicken was played and Simmons blinked first. Until he stops being a chicken on the court, he’s not useful to the Sixers. Send him to a lottery team
One bad game and everybody blame him…lol.. hope he play with sixers than trade him in the midlle of season.i love if my bulls get him
Sixers can be tough with Simmons all they want – bottom line is it will be a chaos rest of the way… Sixers asked for it… Dont blame Simmons!
I guess it Philly’s fault that their max guy is afraid to take an open dunk in 4Q of game 7
It is actually. Philly paid him, Philly has been responsible for his development and Philly got themselves in a position to lose game 7 with ATL.
At some point in 5 years, you might want to take responsibility for your own development and not blame others for your shortcomings. If you’re a grown ass man and have to blame others for your shortcomings, than you have way more important things to focus on than a game
Are the Sixers at fault? Sure. But let’s not make Simmons to be a victim here
Philly is not responsible for his development. The NBA is not a developmental league. Players are supposed to be developed once they get to the top level. He didn’t get drafted 1-1 to be an apprentice for five years.
Nonsense, utter garbage.
So when a player gets better it’s because they work hard… but simmons gets worse because if his outright refusal to think he has to change and he has gotten worse… but yeah that all on philly got it
Did the City of Brotherly Love welcome Simmons back with open arms? I doubt it.
It’s on him now to gain our respect back. Until then he is going to have to take it from the fans.
Simmons should not have signed the extension. Not sure it was RPaul at the time.
Any team would have maxxed him as a FA… albeit at a bit less salary… but these fines, legal because he did extend, offsets that loss.
The “force-out” option requires a “bad-guy” hat. And perhaps, an expiring contract.
Will Doc Rivers know to use him as a 4 in second units when Embiid is still on the floor, and as a 5 in that unit against certain matchups when he isnt, or will he continue to not know anyone on his team
Why anyone would use a 6-11, 240 lb. PF who can’t shoot at PG is a mystery.
Simmons is no Magic Johnson (6-9, 220), who was actually a legitimate PG.
People who compare Ben to Magic and Giannis are being super disrespectfull to two all-time players.
In that first unit, next to Curry, Green, Tobias Harris, and Embiid, he is fine at PG. After that, he should be at the 4/5.
I’m disappointed. Philly fans, coach, front office, and teammates all threw him under the bus. He deserves better than that.
after THIS you feel bad for him? I said the same thing before this. I really thought he was better than this.
@gocavs
honestly hurts in today’s soft af generation. everyone needs to be coddled and placated. he should’ve used those words to motivate himself. I bet you Kobe, Magic and MJ would’ve. Ben is a good player and deserves his awards but he’s not a true superstar in my opinion. he lacks all-star character.
We deserve better than that horrendous performance.
Any American can be expected to be able to hold out for his job opening, if he takes the financial risk; by going to court, another expense, an American can probably get out of a contract, if he gets yanked around like Simmons was.
But who knows who this guy is, or what his risk level is.
And I have not seen HR break down the financials for specifics. Maybe they have in Philly media.
Ben Simmons is the new Kyrie Irving, but the just-before-the-Boston trade Kyrie. Present day Kyrie has evolved into its own thing.
“own thing” is the problem. Irving had Celtic assists & high goals. But he was always basically his own thing. I doubt Duke taught him differently.
#FreeBenSimmons
Now either Ben needs to fake an injury so he gets paid what he has already earned, without playing… or he needs to play to intentionally hurt the team so he becomes unplayable, so he gets paid without playing… either way he has to collapse even more his trade value, so PHI gets a lot less for him, only way to go!
That’s the spirit
Oh the Hissy Fit is over…
Huzzah for the shopkeep.
9th round pick in fantasy… Leggo
Philly fans are upset when he won’t show, then upset when he shows. They complain he’s G league trash then want Lillard in return. Theres some kind of expectation that cos he’s a max player, he has to score 25ppg on jumpers. That’s not his game and it never was. You knew that when you paid him, but you paid anyway because he is elite at everything except shooting outside 5 feet. The situation is, you’re all just butthurt for losing to ATL and he’s the easiest one to blame. You were not going to win anyway and you won’t anytime soon, so you will just end up blaming Doc and Joel. Just blow it up and get to the lottery now, at least then you have a chance of winning something.
He is the easiest to blame because he is the reason they lost…. he took practically no shots in the 4th quarters if games…. and his utter scaredy cst moment where he passed up an open dunk …. but yeah I guess his game is becoming an unplayable all star…. he shrunk st the moment worse that most have ever. Not because he played bad but because he was afraid
He is not the reason they lost. He is one of the reasons we lost. Thybulle foul up 1, was a major contributor, and Thybulle has expressed dismay that no one in Philly complained about him. Number one reason we lost? Transition D throughout the whole series…Ben was not a factor in that as he is our best on d in transition. Ben was also a + 1 in game 7 so it would seem like we were up in the minutes he was on the court and -8 (in 12 minutes of play) when he was sitting. But keep doing your negative Ben narrative. You don’t need facts, you have media and public opinion in your favor.
Here are some facts:
In the 4th quarter
Game 1: 2-2 FG
Game 2: 0-0 FG
Game 3: 1-1 FG
Game 4: 0-0 FG
Game 5: 0-0 FG
Game 6: 0-0 FG
Game 7: 0-0 FG
He shot 15-for-45 (33%) on foul shots against Atlanta and 34.2% from the line for the 2021 playoffs overall, accounting for the worst free throw percentage in NBA playoff history for a player with at least 70 attempts
All the while Joel Embiid is playing on a torn meniscus averaging 30 and 13
I think I said he was “one” of the reasons. I am not saying Ben was not blameless but a quick look at his +- in the 4 loses to the hawks (positive in 3 games even in the 4th loss), shows he was not the only reason just one of many. I don’t like the bash Ben exclusively narrative.
But stats are cool
Embiid 4-20 in game four tied for the 5th worst sixers FG % in history including 0-5 in the 4th
Final 4 games against the hawks Tobias put up, 13 pts in 45 minutes of play, on 4-18 shooting and was a whopping -33 in those 45 minutes and was scoreless in 2 of those 4 4th quarters.
I have no problem with someone critiquing Ben in those loses, he had a disappointing series to say the least, however he was still a net positive throughout the series as a whole. I watched these games, I cheered, I hated every minute of it and still do that we lost. The whole team folded.
The number one reason we lost and it even showed in the Wizards series before that, was transition D. Doc harped on it after every game and it was atrocious. And Atlanta capitalized on it big time. Transition D lost that series and that falls on Joel, Tobias and company more than Ben by a wide margin. Ben’s free throw shooting collapse after a season high % and how that impacted our 4th quarter strategy and lineups was a huge factor no doubt. But I watched and relive every minute of those games. The media narrative might not favor it, but the footage and numbers do, he was one of many reasons we lost but NOT “the reason” we lost…it was a collapse from top to bottom, but props the Hawks who balled out.
Ben who?
I don’t see how this is going to work at all. The only reason for him to come back or for the team to take him back is to let him play his trade value up.
The team wants him back, they have been saying it all along…the latest Furkan Korkmaz yesterday:
“I don’t know what the decision is gonna be, what they make or the organization makes,” said Korkmaz at the shootaround on Monday. “I would like to play with him again. We want to see him back here; I want to see him back here. On the court, off the court, I know what kind of person he is, how strong character he is. We would like to have him back. I would like to have him back.”
The players know he is and what he brings, they are not stupid. They know he makes them better. But that won’t fit the fan and media narrative. The players won’t have a problem with him