I think it's in the Siakam or Simmons? thread but some writers have said that Neil turned down a CJ for Siakam swap but they were vague. I mean it wouldn't totally blow my mind that Neil overvalued CJ like that but I think it's more likely that he was proposed a trade of CJ+ for Siakam and the + was too much. The other thing is that he might be holding our for Simmons or playing hard to get with Toronto until he knows for sure on Simmons.
Didn’t Simmons say he doesn’t want to come to Portland? Would that change Neil’s mind at all? Or fuck it who cares?
If the rumor is true that Neil turned down that trade than I think Neil might be a narcissist. We get it dude you drafted CJ. But he is what he is. Give it up! This team ain’t going nowhere with that backcourt tandem. Zero defense. Now we got Normie playing out of position at the 3? This has the makings of a real shit show
Holy moly, some guy named Jason Dumas said on his radio show that he spoke to someone, not Simmons who said Simmons is a LA socialite and would only want to go to a California team. Now this guy Jason Dumas is a sport talk guy in the Bay Area and the only California team interested in Simmons is the Warriors. He said that a guy like Simmons doesn't want to go to a bad situation like Portland or Toronto. Basically this guy sounded like he talked to one person who knows or says he knows Ben and extrapolated what ever he wanted to drum up some press and get ratings in the Bay Area. The main point that the guy made is that he is hearing the situation with Philly is beyond repair and Ben won't return calls from the team or Embiid and is referring them to his agent. So yeah, Simmons might prefer California but he's never complained about Philly and he's never talked about not wanting to go to a small market. So since this Dumas guy didn't even claim to have spoken with Ben... it's basically some Abbott shit accept this guy isn't national, he's local to the Bay Area (radio host, news station sports guy, writes local for Bleacher Report).
I wouldn't put it past him or maybe he knows what he has to do with Philly and he's just trying to drive down the price. There are endless scenarios but him being that attached to his guy CJ, that he drafted and saw 30M per season value in when no one else did, is a very real possibility.
oh okay thanks for clarifying. I work long ass hours and just saw a headline saying Simmons wouldn’t want to come to Portland. Wasn’t sure if true or not.
The guys putting the story up nationally without checking into it themselves are irresponsible. The whole thing is bullshit and not because of Portland but because it makes Simmons seem like a stuck up prick (which could be true but probably isn't) when he might be really down to earth and ready to play anywhere he can win, have a good role and not get thrown under the bus by his coach and teammate.
been saying it all along, Simmons needs to get his shit together between his head, he doesn’t work on his game and he doesn’t want to come to Portland lmao. Good, stay the fuck away! Say no to Simmons
The dude reporting this, though he works in SF, is a Philly guy (his grandfather has a street in Philadelphia named after him), so I wouldn't necessarily doubt that he would have some significant and legit connections to the 76ers org.
I get that it could be CJ+, but what would the "plus" be that would be too much? But when I think about it, I just don't buy that Toronto would even really WANT CJ. Yes, they've played a backcourt of FVV and Lowry, both of whom are shorter than CJ, but they're both excellent defenders, and in general, they really prize defense. Which kind of rules out CJ.
