Trade Ben Simmons poll

I wish I shared your belief in RoCo's offensive ability. He is ok as a 3 pt shooter, but even then he is so streaky. His 2 pt shots are almost nonexistent. He is not going anywhere so I hope you are right. I just can't stand that his 3pt shots always seem to be about 25-26 feet out.

 

Morey is also hellbent on Dame and probably realizes swapping Simmons for CJ takes away the option for Dame to ask out.

 

I'm certain he does and this is the source of my growing anger towards Morey. He's willing to destroy two teams "to win"...maybe. If I'm Olshey, I make it clear that even if Dame wanted out I'd never, EVER trade him to the Sixers under ANY circumstances.

 

i still think dame's cryptic tweets and messages earlier in the summer had a very detrimental effect on potential FAs and in trade talks (yes, I know Dame participated in FA calls for Batum/Oubre/Powell/etc., but still...). Even a whiff of his hesitancy to remain in Portland would remove the team's negotiating power.

 

Portland is an awkward trade fit. Based purely on talent (because Morey doesn't worry about things like "it's going to be uncomfortable having a holding-out Ben Simmons"), Lillard is too heavy a trade return and McCollum is too light. Simmons is massively talented--it just so happens the one thing he doesn't do well is the most important single trait right now. But the 76ers have been successful with him before--they were a double-doink Leonard shot away from the Eastern Conference Finals a couple years ago. The best way for the 76ers to fade into irrelevance is to blow the Simmons trade and get back someone who isn't star level. McCollum isn't star level. Morey knows that, which is why he's taking his sweet time--while I think some of his reported trade proposals have been absurd, I do agree with his process in taking his time. They have Simmons under lock and key for four years, he's not about to disappear as a trade option imminently Morey's better off waiting to see if some team gets desperate or some star becomes disgruntled.

And what's his dream scenario? That both factors happen in Portland. If by the trade deadline, Portland is mired in, say, tenth place (because seeds 6-10 are all within a few games of each other), it's not impossible that Olshey will be getting desperate and Lillard will be unhappy. I still don't think Olshey moves Lillard in that situation, but it becomes not-impossible perhaps. At least, that's something Morey can hope on. But he can also hope a team like Sacramento gets desperate and offers up De'Aaron Fox or some other situation of that ilk. Short of trying to get out of the gate with as many early regular season wins as possible, there's not much upside for Philadelphia to trade Simmons for McCollum, IMO.

 

The most surefire way for Olshey to lose his job is to trade Lillard. Why would he do that? Even if Dame insists on getting out and Olshey's hand is forced, doing so will have ensured his own fate as well.

Also, if we were to trade Dame, it really doesn't make sense to bring Simmons in to Portland. He's not the kind of anchor you build around after trading away your franchise's best player ever.

 

That's how I felt as well. It's one thing to voice that you want to see change, but it's another thing entirely to let people believe for a long time that you're going to want out.

 

As I said, I don't think he would. But desperation doesn't necessarily lead to the best decisions. And regarding Simmons not being the best post-Lillard anchor, sure, I kind of agree with that (though not entirely--while he's not the ideal top option franchise player, I do think that to maximize Simmons' myriad strengths, you need to build around him as the primary ball-handler), but beggars can't be choosers. Olshey likely wouldn't be all that keen on a Lillard-for-draft-picks deal, because he assuredly wouldn't be the one sticking around to use them. He'd more likely want a star in return, in a last ditch effort to save his job. Simmons is the only star clearly available--maybe Lillard's availability would shake loose someone else, but that's quite speculative.

 

Simmons' value has cratered and continues to do so every week that he is out. Suddenly, he's gonna be worth Dame after all this drama? It doesn't make much sense.

And we can critique CJ all we want, but Simmons' value is a lot closer to CJ's than it is Dame's.

 

Nope. He's not. We're talking about a scenario in which Lillard is traded for less than he's worth.

 

Plus he and his agent would never want him to stay long-term. So then we would be back to trading him for assets from a select few teams.
IMO Simmons would only want to stay in Portland to play with Dame.

 

I did. I don't agree with your idea that Olshey would swap Dame for Simmons to save his job. It would not only be admitting that: 1) he failed at negotiation and 2) he traded away Dame.

Simmons for Dame is not some last ditch effort.

 

I still don't think you're reading my posts.

 

I read your qualifiers. I don't this scenario requires it. It IS an impossibility. And my comments aren't only directed at you. It's also to ridicule Morey's waiting game.

 

Fair enough, we disagree on it being impossible. I do think it's improbable, but I've seen desperate GMs do dumb things.

CJ McCollum isn't a big enough gain to be worth pulling the trigger immediately. I know last year you were banking on CJ's early production, pre-injury, being a whole new star-level, but it was proven not to be when he came back. He's a good scorer, inconsistent play-maker for others and a huge, huge minus on defense. The Ben Simmons deal, whenever it happens, will likely be the most important move of Morey's Philadelphia tenure--I think it would be silly of him to rush it when McCollum is all he'd get by rushing it.

 

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2021/10/0...career-on-winner-not-getting-to-spread-wings/

I will just leave this here without comment.

 

https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/202...d-not-expect-fines-from-sixers-to-be-so-high/

Amazing. I'm beginning to wonder if he signed that mega-contract under false pretenses. It's possible he signed the deal in good faith and then changed his mind. It's also possible he was intending to do this the entire time....and was told the team would just roll over and take it.

 

So much back and forth about all this. I wish Simmons would just get traded anywhere at this point so we can all move on.

 

my personal understatement of the year!