A report stating that the Celtics have interest in Ben Simmons prompted Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe to explore whether Boston should aggressively pursue a deal for Simmons, and Jay King and Rich Hofmann of The Athletic to discuss whether the 25-year-old would make the C’s a better team.
Simmons’ play-making ability would make him an intriguing fit for the Celtics and Washburn hears from a league source that the three-time All-Star would be interested in coming to Boston. However, the general sense is that it would be very difficult for the two division rivals to find an agreement that works for both sides. The Sixers are unlikely to accept an offer that doesn’t include Jaylen Brown, whereas the Celtics are unlikely to include Brown in any offer.
In fact, multiple league sources who spoke to Brian Robb of MassLive.com were “adamant” that the Celtics don’t have any interest in moving Brown at all, either for Simmons or in any other deal. I’m sure Boston would reconsider that stance if a player a tier above Brown became available, but presumably the team doesn’t view Simmons as that sort of player.
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- The Celtics intend to keep Dennis Schröder in their starting lineup while Brown recovers from his hamstring strain in order to have Josh Richardson and the club’s young wings remain in their bench roles, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
- Besides wanting to get back to the playoffs, Raptors guard Fred VanVleet has a series of individual goals that he’d like to achieve, as he said on The Raptors Show with Will Lou (link via Sportsnet.ca).“I definitely would like to be an All-Star,” VanVleet said. “I want to win all the awards. I want to be All-Defensive … Those are all goals that I have. The good thing for me is that I probably won’t achieve any of those if we aren’t a good team or a top team.”
- Raptors forward Isaac Bonga has accepted a G League assignment, according to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter links). Because he’s in his fourth NBA season, Bonga had to sign off on being sent to the NBAGL. The 22-year-old has only logged seven minutes across three games in Toronto so far, but should get a chance to play a starring role for the Raptors 905 when they open their season on Thursday.
- The Nets recalled center Nicolas Claxton from the G League on Tuesday, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Despite being back with Brooklyn, Claxton has been ruled out for Wednesday’s game and there’s still no indication he’s closer to returning from the illness that has sidelined him since October 25.
im a big fan of jaylon brown but i think its a good deal for both teams
No it’s not. Lol
You might not be a fan, but Brown is a better player than Simmons. He’s a guy you need to guard for 94 feet as opposed to Simmons that you have to guard for 10 feet.
Much much better offensively, and not much worse on D. Brown is the better player, and far more valuable. I guarantee if he was available the Ws would package the kids for Brown which they wouldnt for Simmons.
I think it’s a poor fit (but equal value) for both teams.
Cs: Simmons
76ers: Kyrie
Nets: Smart, Richardson, filler #1 from Bos
interesting, this will never happen, but looks like a better scenario for the three teams involved. (didn’t checked if the salaries match though)
That would be a horrible trade for the Nets lol.
Really? Kyrie isn’t playing this year, he has a player option. The Nets will be crazy to offer him an extension, so this trade is basically nothing for something good for them. Im not saying this is the better offe the Nets can get, but im sure not a lot of teams are willing to take Kyrie with all his question marks, i think Philly and the Ben situation are absolutely takin this gamble.
Nobody trusts Kyrie will play if he is dealt. Other cities could institute similar vaccine mandates at any time if cases spike so you risk a winter wave killing your trade.
The way things are right now, basically any trade with a decent return for either Kyrie or Simmons is a good one for both the Nets and the Sixers. And there’s no way Boston is giving up Jaylen Brown for either of them.
This would be a pretty good deal.
Nets get some much needed defence with Smart and JRich. Smart would also be a great fit I think in the locker room.
Celtics a 5 of Schroder Brown Simmons Tatum and Horford, and could still make a Brown plus bits deal for Beal if they wanted too.
Sixers get Kyrie, as a Sixers fan I’d be happy if he gets the vax and plays but that won’t happen. He’s just got way to make baggage to make the deal actually work.
Otherwise would be great
Nets would be better off cutting out the c’s and just taking Ben in this scenario. But hopefully not, I have no interest in Kyrie coming to the 215
I would kinda agree but Smart and JRich offer more shooting and more depth (2 instead of 1). Plus they are both less ball dominate which allows more touches for Harden and KD whereas Simmons is rather useless off ball and would take touches away from these two.
Simmons and Kyrie should start their own franchise. Since neither one of them seems to want to play, they can play some one on one games with each other!
Great idea they could play at Rucker
Celtics goal is to improve
76ers expected to get better
So third team offers an star
Here’s what I don’t get. Why would any team owner or fan think that the same problems Ben has experienced in Philly will somehow be left in Philly? Will his shooting improve outside of Philly? Will his FT shooting improve? Will his anxiety, about shooting at all, in the 4th quarter of important games be over when he leaves Philly? If mentally he’s uneasy about playing in front of the Philly crowd then how will he handle a city like Boston where the lights shine just as bright and the crowds just as passionate?
He will never be a shooter by any means, the 4th quarter thing was hurting them on the ATL series. He is still, with all his flaws that will remain always in his game, a great player overall. The goal is to put him in a situation were the team will not need him to score or shoot, and Boston is a better scenario than 76ers in that matter.
One thing that is very important, he was a high pick and a very very talented prospect, Philly fans always wanted and though he would develop some lvl of shooting, and he said he would, the expectations for were very high, higher than his ceilling.
Boston or the new team fans will know what they are getting, this changes everything and could be a fresh start for him.
Great take. This applies for just about any other team in the NBA… The issue is trade value and org fit. Once these get figured out, the rest will fall into place. The problem is the 76ers mgmt are asking for too much on trade value.
He also could be in a better roster situation to succeed with his skill set. If he is a small ball 5 on a team like the Kings running him with Fox/Haliburton/Heild/Barnes around him they could run and gun well.
BOS must settle down, I mean of course they would trade JB for a better player, who wouldn’t, right?
But for a better player they need to add JT to JB, come on you can’t trade less for more, ain’t working like that, if you want a star you give one as good as you get, that is the only good trad when both teams win, if you trying to fleece another team no one will deal with you, so you will always lose, as of now I’d say Ben is a better overall player than JB, although might be getting pretty even, so it seems a fair trade like for like!
#FreeBenSimmons
#LetKyriePlay
Unfortunately, Philly has Ben rated much higher than everyone else and value being right more than winning.
A few more months off and I’m sure his trade value will go up because….well…uh…everyone will forget & suddenly view him as the answer to this years playoff push because he’s been such a key performer in the post season.
There really is some truth to a lot of additional players coming available between mid Dec and the end of Jan so it would be much easier to construct deals.
The fans in Boston would eat Simmons and his fragile ego alive. The best place for him to go is somewhere with a less hardcore fan base. If he cant handle the philly fans booing him when he doesnt play the way his salary says he should, then Boston is not the place for him.
The Sixers should strongly consider a deal like the Wizards made with the Lakers over the summer. The Wizards are off to a great start even though they didn’t acquire a superstar in that trade. They surround Beal with guys like Kuzma and Harrell who have something to prove. Even though Morey is holding out for a superstar, they should trade Simmons now for a package of young talent and draft picks .
So there’s no conversation
Brown on the Sixers isn’t getting 19 FGA a game. You’ll get 10-15 so possibly a 18 pt scorer. His contract is better for the Sixers. I like Bens game with the exception of being afraid in the moment and afraid to shoot. Ben is a better defender, passer, rebounder. But this is a team that needs a scorer. If it were straight up, it’s a deal for the Sixers.
It’s unrealistic Cs love Brown unless he is the locker room issue behind closed doors.
However it ends I just hope that Morey lands a playmaker and not role players.