That's not against his current team, it's against his former team. To answer your question, even with a bad back and having mental health issues, yeah I would have loved to land him if it would have been for CJ, a couple of future firsts going to the Sixers, RoCo going to the Bulls for our pick back and sending DJJ to the Sixers. That would have been a good deal for the Sixers as well. Sorry if I don't turn my nose up at a 25 year old, 6'10" athletic beast, all nba player that can do everything on the court at an elite level except shoot. I also have a feeling when people see him play with KD and Kyrie, all of these haters are going to magically dissipate... or maybe I'm wrong and he'll just be a headache for the rest of his career but I sincerely doubt it. I also don't know about the back thing but if what's holding Simmons back is his head I think Dame would be a much better guy to help with that than KD and Kyrie are but again, I see those three having a pretty good go either in just a little bit here or next season.
This fully explains why he hasn't played for Brooklyn yet. "See, I wasn't 'sitting out' voluntarily; I wasn't physically able to play. If it were all just a holdout, I would have been on the floor right after I was traded, but now it's been over a month and I still haven't played. Clearly the Sixers were just being big meanies withholding my paychecks!"
It's easy to be tempted to believe something like this, but (a) I don't think Nash would outright lie about it, and (b) actually SITTING is one of the worst things for your back. That's why I have a standing desk (that I'm typing at right now).
your standing desk has no back pain but it would if it was a sitting desk? Is the back of your desk facing a wall or a window? the back of my desk faces both but it's actually attached to the wall so it's back is well braced. At least it hasn't complained about back pain yet. It does whine a lot when I accidentally kick it
I think there's a fairly good chance that he's back on the market this summer. Would you give up our pick for him? I wouldn't if it's top 4 but I would maybe give it a second thought if we drop in the lottery. Absorbing his salary also would not be possible with our TPE. It would have to be Bledsoe + filler, or some other machination. I was as big a Simmons fans as possible three months ago but have substantially cooled on him. I think we dodged a bullet along the likes of Parsons/Hibbert this deadline. Mental hurdles like the ones he has seem hard to come back from. Not to mention, supposedly lingering and chronic back issues.
I'd still trade 6 for him. If we wait to sign the pick and trade him, I believe Bledsoe, didi and the 6th pick should just cover the incoming salary. Would still leave us with both TPEs to fill out the roster.
He's been out long enough now to establish a case that he was really physically or mentally unable to play. If he loves the game he would be back playing now. If he really loves the game he would have been back a long time ago and risked losing some of those millions. I know I waffled on this but now for me, he would not be a guy I would want on the Blazers.
I see 2 probable scenarios. The first is that he didn't get traded to the team he wanted and is still pouting. The second is that he is waiting for a verdict on the grievance. If he wins and is allowed to collect the rest of his contract without ever lifting a finger - that's what will happen.
I still see all of the potential on offense to be a rim running big that can be a secondary or primary playmaker and there is no doubting the impact that he can make on the floor. I think this last year has been a total train wreck for the guy and Dame would be the absolute best teammate to get him out of that head space and I think the low impact environment (if he would buy into it) of Portland would be good for him too. Crunching the numbers I think it would cost us Hart to land him. So it would be pick 6, 7 or 8, Bledsoe's contract and Josh Hart which would be a really good haul for the Nets with all of their depth issues. I would still do it. I would then see if we could get the Jerami Grant for our second rounder and the Bucks 2025 first. I don't know how Simmons and Nurk fit together but I'd be willing to give it a shot. The bench would need a lot of work but Dame, Ant, Grant, Simmons, Nurk and Nas is not a bad place to start for a rotation. We would probably need to use the TPMLE to get a backup big. I think Hartenstein would be a fantastic get. Dame, Ant, Grant, Simmons, Nurk, Nas, Keon, Trendon, Hartenstein could be a rotation that would be better than any we've had in a long time.
it's just a damn shame. On paper, I don't think there's a more ideal basketball fit for what Chauncey wants to do, or for Dame to cover up his weaknesses and build synergy.
Are you sure we would have to include Hart? I would NOT do 6+ Hart + for Simmons. It's one or the other with salary fillers. Simmons is owed about 35 mil next year. So realistically, we have to come up with ~28 mil or so in tradeable $-- which should be doable if we trade AFTER signing our pick. Could we trade Ingles in a S&T in addition to Bledsoe?
We wouldn't need to include Hart if we just signed the pick, and included Didi. Now, I dunno of they would go for that, but I'd start there.
Bledsoe -- 19.375 #6 pick (rookie scale) -- 4.99, but if we sign him for 125% as is customary (6.24) Didi -- 1.876 That gets us to ~27.5 mil. Almost there. Maybe throw in Keon/Brown/Watford if needed.
I agree and while there is no telling what will happen with him going forward, Simmons has a lot more history being nothing but a good soldier, showing up to work and giving it his best than he does fucking up. Yeah this last year has been one big fuck up but if you watch Steven A. talk his shit, it doesn't add up. Simmons has had a bad year in which he got all in his head during the Atlanta series (Stephen A. called it quitting on his teammates), he then held out and said it was due to mental health issues (Stephen A. said it was quitting on his team), then it's been reported that he's been having back issues (again Smith calls it quitting) and Smith stretches this so far as to say that he quit on his teammates but I have no fucking clue what he was talking about because LSU played 33 games the only year that Simmons played for him and played the most minutes on the team. Did Stephan A. mean that Simmons quit on them by leaving for the draft or was he referring to the fact that he played poorly in his last game with the team in the fucking NIT? Seriously the lengths that people are going to in order to bury Simmons are ridiculous. The dude is struggling and there's no sure fire way to know that he'll stop struggling but he's got four years in the league where he gave it his best against this last year where he had a rough time or gave up. I think the odds are still heavily in favor of Simmons picking his career up again and having his best seasons ahead of him.
He's indifferent. Watch his doc on when he came out of HS to College. Just the way he is. He has overpowering parents and siblings.