Would you trade John Wall & 3 - 4 1st rounders for Ben Simmons?

Rockets already have a SUPER max player.

Who does not play.

At least Simmons would play.

Common sense has become rare in these crazy times.

 

But Simmons don't create for himself though. If he did I would have helped John Wall pack up his belongings for a flight to Philly already.

 

Why not just trade Gordon, Wood, and House for Simmons? I'd give them two 1sts as well - whatever they think is our best one and whatever we think is our worst one. Sixers get vets that will help them win now plus two picks.

PG: Porter, Jr. / Augustin / Exum
SG: Green / Christopher / Brooks
SF: Tate / Martin, Jr. / Nwaba
PF: Simmons / Garuba / Lamb
C: Theis / Sengun

 

Because Wood is better than Simmons.

 

Woah now, let’s pump the breaks a bit here. Wood when playing within his role is definitely a better fit for our O, but Simmons is definitely the better player in a vacuum. His D and passing are both streets ahead of Wood and FTs are a wash. Wood is definitely a superior scorer and IMO better in a half court offense given his ability and willingness to shoot the ball.

 

The problem is, there's never a vacuum. Simmons only fits on a team built to cater to his strengths and cover up his weaknesses. And he's not good enough of a player to build a contender around. Wood fits on nearly any roster in the league for half the salary.

 

Well, to be fair, he does have Wiltish stats in some areas:

 

Of course he does.

He scores by taking the ball coast to coast after snagging rebound/steal or block and in half court his length allows him to take ball from arc to cup in few steps.

He takes no inefficient shots. Everything is at rim or out 10 feet from rim.

But most importantly, Simmons creates for others. He is excellent at this.

Which is a huge need on this Rockets team.

 

I am a Wood fan but CF is losing its mind.

 

I'd trade for him but not for tons of picks. If Wall, pieces and a couple of picks would get it done it's still a no brainer for me. You don't even have to play Simmons at the point at all, he's tall enough to play center if we're honest about it. Having a guy that size as a secondary or tertiary ballhandler who plays the defense he does is better than the nothing we get from Wall's contract currently. We've got people who are supposed to be scorers in KPJ, Wood, Green and Sengun. All Simmons would need to do is score a few dunks and layups and in transition.

 

It's a thing to just dogpile a star player every year so now this year it's Simmons. You really have people that think House is better than Ben Simmons...

 

I’ll concede on your point re: transition offense. Creating for other is one of Simmons’ strengths, you won’t get pushback from me on that. As for creating opportunities for himself to score…maybe I’m expecting more than what he’s doing. I think everyone is expecting that. The kid is efficient inside and, like you said, don’t take a bad shot (whether or not that because he’s afraid to shoot that’s another argument). All that being said, he should be a 20-22 ppg scorer by now. Now is a 6-8 more points on top of what he average last year that big of a deal? I’d argue yes because he would then be considered more of a threat on offense which would make him devastating with his play making and defense.

I’ve been down on him for who he is right now as an NBA player but I’ve always believed the kid has the necessary skills and talent to be more. It’s been reported that he wants to be traded so that he could be the main man….like what was stopping him from being that in Philly? Embiid is a big presence but he’s been in and out of the lineup with injuries and Simmons could have seized the moment to take that alpha role. Hell Morey remade the team to magnify Ben’s strengths.

 

Actually Morey brought in 3ball shooters to optimize Embiid as well as Simmons.

Morey's initial comments on Sixers was heaping the most praise on Embiid, for good reason.

But bringing in Dwight was not optimizing Simmons. It actually deterred his growth by not allowing Simmons to play point center when Embiid was not on floor.

As Point Center surrounded by 3ball shooters - just think how Sengun could be best maximized with the Rockets.

 

when I mentioned Morey remaking the team it was more about Green and Curry though I guess that wasn’t clear. As for Howard take a look at the number of minutes both Simmons and Howard shared the floor for yourself and determine if those limited minutes hindered Simmons’ growth

http://www.82games.com/2021/2021PHI2.HTM

outside of the starting five the 2nd most used lineups based on floor minutes were with Simmons, Curry, Green, Harris and Mike Scott.

 

Of course Dwight addition hindered his growth, but it was primarily due to Doc system which was Embiid centric first and foremost.

So when Dwight entered game he played Embiid role.

And the 2nd player who benefited most from Doc's system was Tobias Harris.

Look at how their numbers jumped, in efficiency AND usage.

There was a reason why Simmons offense took a dip while his defense went into overdrive last season, his touches and his role was tweaked and de-emphasized.

 

I think we’ll continue to be at an impasse on Simmons but I’m sure Doc wouldn’t mind one bit if Simmons took more shots away from Harris’ totals when Embiid sat. Hell I’m sure Harris wouldn’t mind either. If the thought process here is that if Simmons had “his own team” he would shoot more (and score more) …I don’t know if I would buy that considering Philly has always given him to green light to do whatever he wanted on offense even before Doc arrived. Drive to the basket more, post up for his baby hooks, whatever it is that Simmons wanted to do in order to score more I’m sure his coaches and teammates would have been okay with it. Why am I harping on the scoring aspect? Because the kid has pretty much everything else down and this is the last piece of the puzzle that takes him from “Ben Simmons, All-Star” to “Ben Simmons, MVP candidate”. A Ben Simmons that can score at a higher volume with some semblance of an outside shot…that would be devastating.

 

Rockets would take Ben Simmons All Star right now.

This Rockets team lacks an identity.

Simmons will immediately energize pace and energy.

Nevermind playmaking, rebounding and defense.

 

I’m super proud of clutchfans for voting 90% against. It’s absurd to place any value in Simmons’ positives when his negatives put a hard cap on your playoff progression and destroys the spacing for 4 x 19 year olds you are nurturing.

I also don’t want that kind of person in practice with the ethos that it’s ok not to be able to shoot at all. Get that bs away from our young core. We should be an organization that does not accept that.

You can list out all his strengths, but it won’t change the whole reason he’s available: he’s years away from being able to stay on the floor in the 10-15 most important games of the season.

Imagine rushing to acquire that when we are naturally trending towards a better team than Philly ever was.

 

Naturally trending towards a better team than ranked #1 in East?

This is wishful thinking at best, gaslighting at worst.