Rajon Rondo and Jason Kidd say "hi".
If those two could help their teams contend every season and even win a title w/ essentially the same flaws, why can't Simmons?
Historically, Rondo is as statistically bad from the FT line as Simmons and Kidd's FT% was in the 60's his first 5 seasons.
Kidd became a pretty good 3pt shooter as he got older, but neither Kidd nor Rondo were strong shooters or great scorers.
Kidd's average PPG usually hovered in the mid-teens just like Simmons.
Would you not have wanted either of those players in their primes?
I would have wanted Jason Kidd and Rajon Rondo in the era during which they reached their primes, when the three-point shot was yet to eat up the share of FGA's that it represents today. But prime Kidd and prime Rondo would likely struggle to reach their ceilings in 2021, just as Simmons has. There's certainly room for playmakers who defer when it comes to shooting/scoring in the modern NBA, but they're not really counted among all-stars anymore.
That said, Ben Simmons has been an all-star already. He's such a strange player. He's an anomaly, and not exactly after the fashion of a "unicorn"-styled all-star level talent. He
should be something like Scottie Pippen 2.0, a do-it-all playmaker and scorer who can smother on the defensive end while covering positions 1-5 on any given night. But instead, he's alarmingly timid, and his flat-out refusal to work on improving as a shooter is kind of appalling. It registers as unearned arrogance, which is a bizarre quality in a player as meek on the offensive end as Simmons.
I mean, it'd be one thing if he was just a bad shooter. But often he's
afraid to shoot, and despite his obvious talent, you're not going to win a title in the modern NBA if one of your two best players is scared to engage offensively from the moment he steps on the court. Again, he's
such a strange player. It is so odd that someone with his natural gift for seeing and reading the floor cannot seem to get out of his own head.
Of course, Simmons' flaws are not solely the result of a problem between the ears or a lack of killer instinct. Philly's roster construction has certainly helped to magnify his flaws. He's always been a terrible fit next to Embiid. Plenty of sports writers have twisted themselves into knots the last few years trying describe that fit as nothing worse than "awkward," when in truth, it's just never really worked at all. When he's not on-ball, Philly treats him a bit like a center, dropping him on the low block, where he doesn't really accomplish much offensively and rarely even screens for his teammates.
The problem has always been that Simmons occupies the same exact space as Embiid, and the Sixers have weirdly tried to contort Embiid's game to make it work with Simmons' game. But as Embiid has continued to ascend to legitimate superstar status, Simmons has essentially been stuck in place, making it less-than-ideal that their best player is having to accommodate the quirks of their second best player. Why has Simmons made no adjustments whatsoever? Why is it always "I am what I am" with him? He barely bothers to pay lip service to striving for improvement anymore.
Now Simmons' confidence is shot, he's unlikely to reacquire it in Philly, and even less likely to improve under the weight of the blame and expectations that have been thrust upon him in the wake of his timid play in these and other Philly playoff appearances. Worse for Philly, his trade value is at an all-time low. The rest of the league smells blood in the water. They know the Sixers probably need to move on from Simmons if they're ever going to achieve anything more than a second-round exit. Given his injury history, Embiid's window is shorter than most. They don't have time to wait for Simmons to make good on the promise of his talent, and Daryl Morey has never been trigger shy.
So I gather Morey will have to take less than he'd like in a swap. CJ McCollum is the name I see most often in possible trade scenarios right now. That could be beneficial for the Sixers and the Blazers. Could the Kings jump into the deep end and try their hand at buying low on Simmons? It's certainly possible, and while I've never been a very big fan of Simmons, I have to admit that it's exactly the kind of trade scenario the Kings should be looking at. Talent acquisition can be so difficult in the NBA, especially when you whiff on your draft picks the way the Kings have for much of the past decade-and-a-half. Sometimes you have to get into the rehab business and hope that a change of scenery might bring out the best in a player who's failing to live up to their promise.
However, I'd be loathe to give up either Fox or Haliburton in a trade for Ben Simmons. I really want to see more from Hali. He could be special. I would not be willing to ship him out after the great rookie season he just had. And Fox has made big leaps every year. While he's not yet much of a shooter, he has shown improvement in that area, unlike Simmons. More importantly, the kid is driven. This season, he effectively answered the question of whether or not he had the killer instinct to catapult himself into the all-star conversation. Simmons has yet to really show that he
wants to be one of the league's best. So if I'm trading for Simmons, I'm taking advantage of the Sixers' poor bargaining position.
Buddy Hield, this year's pick, and maybe a future pick? I don't think that gets the deal done, but if it did, I'd roll those dice. Philly needs the shooting. And while they don't need draft picks/young players, Morey loves asset accumulation. And draft picks remain some of the most potent currency in the league, particularly if you're trying to shop for disgruntled stars (which is Morey's MO). I have no idea if Fox/Hali/Simmons could possibly work. They'd need two more above-average outside shooters in the lineup. But the playmaking versatility, fastbreak potency, and at-rim finesse would be off-the-charts.
