The fascination and optimism for Simmons truly bewilders me. The kid has not shown even the tiniest bit of improvement since he was drafted into the league or even the slightest DESIRE to want to improve. In fact, any calls by other for him to improve have been met with, at best, apathy and sometimes downright hostility. Unless Santa gifts Simmons both a heart and a pair of balls, why is anyone realistically expecting him to change now. As for fit, it gets worse. People are like, he needs to be surrounded by shooters so he will fit on our team. How?!? What shooters do we have? Wood, the player he would ideally be replacing, is our best shooter and why our lineup works so well with him in it. Metrically, we were one of the worst (if not the worst) 3pt shooting teams last season and while it remains to be seen how our rookies perform in the NBA, statistically we got even worse after the draft. Numerically, every single player we drafted is at best, a mediocre shooter from long range. Both KPJ and Green require space to be their best as a scorer and Simmons only worsens the situation from there.
Yao Ming Kyle Lowery James Harden Eric Gordon Aaron Brooks Jae'Sean Tate KPJ Christian Wood Luis Scola According to history, all of the all stars we have had in the last 15 years were traded here. We had only 4 bad seasons out of the 15. Everybody that we actually drafted or plucked from obscurity were solid NBA players. In proving your point you are proving mines to trade for Ben. But every player that has come here became a better player. You can not deny that.
Your original statement said that this organization was great a developing talent. Most of these guys were already developed before they got here. Gordon was already a borderline all-star before he came here. Kyle Lowry wasn't an All-Star until he left Houston. James Harden won the sixth man of the year award before he suited up for Houston. Luis Scola was one of the greatest international basketball players before he got traded here. But sure I'll humor you and say your list is A-1, top notch. This still doesn't dismiss the fact that adding Ben Simmons to this team does NOTHING to help our chances to be nothing more than, AT BEST, an easy out for a top Western conference team in the playoffs. Why waste $30 million and a roster spot on a player like that when you can just let the young players play and, oh I don't know, grow and develop? If you believe in your list then you should also believe that the Rockets have the necessary system in place to develop the players/rookies we have so why even trade for Simmons? I won't question your fandom or how long you've been a Rockets fan but another year of sucking after years of being a contender isn't the end of the world. If you witnessed Rockets basketball prior to the Harden era then you would know/agree that being a bad team isn't as bad as one that rides the mediocre train every year. Demanding or expecting this team/franchise to turn around and become some kind of "contender" by way of a Simmons trade is questionable.
lol what, exactly, do you want me to believe? That we're one Ben Simmons away from being a playoff team like what you stated earlier? No I'm not going to believe that because a Ben Simmons-led team is a .500 team at best (look it up if you want). He doesn't bring any kind of leadership, any intangible that can help the younger players. In fact, his own persona on and off the court might be detrimental to our young/impressionable core. I don't want anyone around KPJ, Green, Christopher, Sengun, Garuba, etc. that feels like it's ok to coast through your entire career to make money and not improve your game. He's averaged pretty much the same numbers in Year 5 that he did in Year 1. What I believe in is that this team is young, will make mistakes and, if they're going to be great players, they'll learn through it all the hard way. I'm not demand/expecting playoffs because it's unrealistic to do so when you're probably going to have at least 2 rookies playing heavy minutes every game. EDIT: If Simmons were some kind of leader and has leadership qualities I'd say sure let's roll the dice on him so that he can work with our roster. But he's no leader.
What the hell are you talking about? If Simmons was willing to do that in Philly they wouldn't be talking about trading him! Lots of the crap here is just a joke, you are talking about a person's abilities without considering what his personality is like. Bruh you realize Simmons has been in Philly for 7 years now right? He has been to have 0 shooting since day 1, if he was willing to be a PF don't you think they would've put him at PF by now? SMH!
Is it safe to say you think Simmons makes the Rockets a contender? I don't get the point of making the playoffs only to lose in the first round when we could be drafting another major piece to add to Green. Remember him? The dude Rox only got by tanking?
But he, apparently, can get us to the 10th seed for a play-in game. That is pretty valuable to some on here.
The misconception some make on here about "Simmons can be our playmaking 4!" is that, yes he has the height to play and defend 4s but he still brings absolutely nothing on the offensive end. Looking at the NBA landscape right now on who's manning the traditional 4 position: Giannis Zion Durant AD John Collins Sabonis Harris Randle Siakam None of those guys are complete zeroes on the offensive end. Some are prolific scorers (Durant), some can shoot the 3 (Harris, Randle), some can drive from 23 ft out and to the basket (Zion, Giannis). Ben Simmons can't do any of that. Putting him in the modern day 4 position where he sits at the 3 point line to stretch out defense won't work because defenses would be eager to sag off of him. Putting him in the traditional 4 position down low would require him having actual post moves and footwork to finish in the 5-10 foot range.
If he had 3 years left I’d do it . But wall will be up season after this . 5 years left right !? sure he is young , but man .. a lot of the bad signs are there . A combo of Ricky Rubio and Andrew Wiggins . Come to speak of it , both those guys had big contracts for a while right? The player is worth a shot . The contract and the “young socialite” (jk) make it tough . if we weren’t able to use Wall then we are trading Gordon and wood for him . At that point we should be asking for a pick . it’s not a 40 million dollar deal . But still , given how he’s played so far, how can you justify it ? if we need a Pg that can’t shoot let’s just bring back Jeremy Lin !
Simmons is a perfect fit for the Rockets as long as he develops skills he's never shown before and and plays a completely different role and position. Perfect fit. /s
Listen, criticizing Simmons in regard to his unwillingness or inability to shoot is more than fair. But the rest of the things you're saying are just lies. LIES. BLATANT LIES. See below a whole piece by Kevin O'Connor on the ways he's improved his game for this past season. And stop pretending he hasn't improved any facet of his game. He can't shoot. For sure. But he's improved. And I, for one, just don't believe he's ever been in a situation that maximizes his skillset. Do I want the Rockets to build around him? Hell no. But I like the core of our rebuild. If I were some team like Cleveland that has a center that can shoot the three, I'd be thinking long and hard about how to get him and surround him by shooters and see if we can be anything close to Giannis and the Bucks. https://www.theringer.com/video/202...ons-philadelphia-76ers-best-season-his-career
I do think so. You just have to know how to use him. If he comes here he doesn't have to do a whole lot. He would have way more shooters around him than in Philly. The point of going to the playoffs now is to get the younger guys used to winning in the NBA. You can not really develop properly losing like we did last year. If we lose like that we will develop bad habits.
Understand at the end of the day the only stat that matters is wins. So if we actually got Ben and we start winning again, you would be mad?
Before I answer your question let me ask you this question: Last year's team finished with 17 wins. The 10th place team finished with 33 wins. Are you saying that you believe that by trading for Ben Simmons, next year's team with him on the roster, you're expecting a +16 game turn around? Is that what you're saying? I want to make sure I understand what you think/believe before I go deeper down this rabbit hole.
