I think he is potentially a great fit in Minnesota because they badly need a top defender that can cover multiple spots.... and Simmons and Townes are a great pairing.... and they have a top young SG and they still have Russell. Simmons is a better passer and distributor than Russell anyway, and is a perfect ball handler for someone like Finch who is about as creative a coach as there is offensively. If the Wolves can use Russell to get Simmons, they really should do it...... Finch will find a way to make Simmons work and he will help a great deal on the defensive side. The Wolves should also get more serious in their talks with the Rockets for Eric Gordon as well..... they have a lot of pressure to make the playoffs..... swapping Russell for Simmons and adding Gordon would really help the defense... and there are already enough weapons for Finch on offense.
I agree. But point remains, that top 5 pick (if Rockets even get that "lucky" in 2022, then again in 2023) is no guarantee to be as good as Simmons is right now. Competing for a championship is the goal which means acquiring the most talent possible, not accumulating the most high draft picks. And Rockets would be foolish to focus on only ONE path to acquire talent, especially proven talent.
I bet they’d hand the PG keys to Maxey. Maxey / McCollum / Covington / Harris / Embiid with Curry and Green first off the bench. Definitely an interesting squad.
You could be right but his game is more Lou Williams than CP3. May not be best complement for Embiid in terms of spacing. And Maxey's not very good 3P shooter either. Maybe a combo of Maxey, Springer and Shake Milton at PG.
Green doesn't need the ball in his hands to be a facilitator for him to score.... Simmons would likely help Green score more, because Simmons is exceptional at getting the ball to open shooters.... as for Porter, he wasn't the facilitator in Cleveland..... also no reason the Rockets cannot have two ball handlers.... the real issue is whether Porter would shoot well enough from 3 to overcome Simmons not shooting any 3's.
Even without a 3ball, Simmons (and Mobley) are outside-in players. It is Jarrett Allen that would clog up up the paint - for both Simmons and Mobley. Simmons and Mobley would be very complementary. It is their efficiency that would be in question. Mobley would have to improve his 3ball significantly. But these 2 would be near unstoppable in PnR. Both have impeccable vision to identify defensive rotations and are excellent passers when doubled.
At some point the Rockets have to pick a path, and likely very soon..... they have Wood on the roster for example, and they have to decide if they want to go after Simmons harder. While I agree with you that the Rockets should be open to all possibilities, the reality is that if the Rockets trade Wood or in this case trade for Simmons, it will make a big difference in the how the team does in the short term and long term. At some point an organization needs to make a decision on how they want to proceed. For example, if the strategy is to be bad again this year.... that drastically impacts what they likely will want to do with Wood....
You may be right. But it just feels like Ben Simmons has been completely misused in Philadelphia and might be best suited for a team in which there is no traditional center on the floor with him.
Agreed. I understand the "process" in tanking for high draft picks but I'm not convinced it is a recipe for a championship. Only OKC was successful strictly relying on this method. But only got as far as the Finals. Once. If lucky, Rockets will have too many young players reaching their peaks around same time, and all wanting to get paid at same time. 76ers only started contending for a ring via trade and FA for role players to complement their 2 core stars.
I'm not trying to start anything but can you elaborate as to how he's been widely misused in Philly? Embiid is one of the last elite post scorers in the NBA but had to extend his game out to the three point area to accommodate for Simmon's shortcomings on the offensive end. They've made trades and signed players that compensate/complement Simmons' lack of shooting over the past couple of years in Harris, Curry, Green, George Hill. And if you don't want to play a traditional center with Ben Simmons, what kind of big man are you envisioning?
For all the Simmons stans on this board, the gap between Magic Johnson and Ben Simmons is akin to the gap between Simmons and Andre Roberson. I can’t think of another non-center who got Hacka’ed in such a fashion in the playoffs. Simmons is like Rajon Rondo plus 7 inches and minus the clutch gene. That kind of player can’t be your top two guy on a championship contending team. Closest he ever got, he was the distant third player behind Embiid and Butler.
He was an excellent 3rd guy. Like Clint was our 3rd best player on our 2018 team with Harden and CP3.
I think Ben Simmons should be the big for most of the minutes he's on the floor. I think that's how you best utilize him as a mismatch. The big ought to be able to hit the 3 at a decent clip but needs to be strong enough to do a decent job of banging with the very few remaining big centers like Embiid and Jokic. But I think most of the time you can go smaller and faster with Simmons playing the 5 and his limited shooting isn't as big of an issue there.
2020-2021 stats: KAT: % of FG 10 feet and closer: 52.3% AD: % of FG 10 feet or closer: 44.7% Embiid: % of FG 10 feet or closer: 44.6% Wood: % of FG 10 feet or closer: 53.1% Either we're underestimating the amount of low post and around the paint scoring AD, KAT and Wood does or we're underestimating the amount of shots Embiid actually took away from the paint last year.
So you want to pair him with a big that hits the 3 at a decent clip but is strong enough to bang inside with Embiid and Jokic.....isn't that kinda sorta describing....Embiid?
Or take a look at how all these players score in the paint. Wood, AD and KAT are face up players primarily (putting ball on the floor from perimeter) while Embiid is more than capable of playing this way, but he also likes to ask for ball in paint with back facing the rim.
Does it matter if they are posting up or facing the basket in the grand scheme of things? The goal you and others are trying to reach is to put Simmons as close to the basket as possible so that he's not a complete liability near the perimeter right? So if you're asking your center to now be a 3 point specialist you're basically limiting whatever talent/effective he might have had prior to Simmons' arrival. It's fine when you have a starting center on the roster that's a Brook Lopez because he's your 4th or 5th option on offense but when your big (like an AD, KAT, or Wood) is your 1st or 2nd option on offense and your making him work further from the basket (thereby removing advantages he might have like height, wingspan, etc.)....that's asking for a lot. This doesn't factor in that now that you have Simmons down low, what are you expecting him to do? Score on put backs? He hasn't shown to be a volume rebounder. Score on post moves? Something he doesn't have.
Yes it does matter. Spacing is a huge factor in Silas 5 Out system. Simmons does not need to be under rim to be a threat. He is at his best playing outside-in which is perfect for 5 Out system. Bottom line, Simmons is top 30 player. There no Rockets who are even close to this good. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32244615/nbarank-2021-ranking-best-players-2021-22-50-26
No. Most of the time the other big shouldn't even be on the floor with Ben. And you know that because literally the first sentence out of my mouth was, "I think Ben should be the big for most of the minutes he is on the floor." You only have the other big to back Simmons up and to shift Ben to the four in a few match ups. I am proposing that Simmons IS the big and shouldn't be paired with one in most instances. It's really similar to what we tried to do with Russell Westbrook where we had to get rid of Capela and play small ball all the time. The key difference being Ben Simmons is 6'10 and can actually play center most of the time (I really think Embiid and Jokic might be the only centers he shouldn't be guarding) and is also capable of defending players 1-5 when Westbrook can barely defend other guards these days.
