As I said I dont know how hard Simmons is working. I do t think every nba player gets better every year. The ones we think about/remember generally do but maybe that’s confirmation bias. He’s doing the things he was doing before. Not more. And not improvement. But he remains what he is/was. Doc, Morey and Embiid all “effectively” said we don’t want you here. straight to the point in fact, the ONLY reason they want him there is so he can play and ideally get his trade value up so they can then get rid of him on their terms. AD, Harden, Kyrie… their organizations still wanted them. But they gave up on the organization… not the other way around as is the case with Simmons. That the organization as good reason to give up on him is noteworthy but doesn’t negate the facts otherwise.
This is on Simmons. Front office, Embiid, and Doc just didn’t decide out of the blue…. Simmons actions or lack there of is the issue. There’s plenty of Sixers pieces detailing Simmons lack of work ethic. Max players aren’t supposed to plateau so early.
It's super super rare, even when you remove the max filter and look at All-Star players. The only two I can think of is Harrison Barnes and Andrew Wiggins...they've been pretty much the same player throughout their careers.
Again, i can't speak to the work ethic or lack thereof, and won't believe pieces one way positive or negative. Stephen Silas just had a mini documentary made about him as a leader... doesn't make him a great leader. Or not a great leader. You don't think Simmons has improved in any way? He was fist team all defense last year. He was 3rd team all nba his 3rd year (2 years ago). Lebron James never improved at FTs. In fact he's gotten worse over the years. Not everything is so cut and dry imo. But beyond ALL of that, assuming Simmons has a poor work ethic and never improves... he still is what he was when signed to the extension, and still was not the one that said we don't want you first. Not super apples to apples comparison, granted, but if there's a married couple, and one of them is just meh as a partner but was meh the whole time, then the other partner goes out and say says "hey, I think maybe we should date other people??", then the meh partner thinks about it for a week and is like "yeah, i'm moving out and think we should date other people", are we calling the meh partner a diva for wanting to separate at that point? Like I'm not arguing Simmons is awesome or right or whatever. I don't want him. I'm just saying the blame is split. And NOW, TODAY, the blame is CERTAINLY as much on DM/Sixers as anyone. Why haven't they traded him? Cause they don't want to sell low? Then wtf did they publicly further diminish his value with their comments? It's moronic.
Seems like not reading further up on the issue leaves you ignorant…. Simmons as an overall player has objectively gotten worse from his rookie year. The Lebron comparisons are insulting to Lebron’s career. The blame isn’t split… that’s just absurd. The Sixers are clearly hoping Dame or Beal are less enthused about their teams, especially the former.
I don't think the situation is comparable at all with Harden, AD or even Kyrie. The Harden/AD situations are very common, franchise players couldn't win a chip with their current team, and do not see a way in the near future for that to happen. They want move to join another star to form a super team. their old team gets picks and propects back . Kyrie is a just a weirdo, He has now essentially quit on all 3 teams he's been on, not sure if he wants to even play basketball at this point. Simmons situation is weird because, he no longer wants to play for a clear contender for what seems to be some kind of mental block. He would even go to a tanking team just to avoid the situation all together. The 6ers doesn't want picks or propects back like the Rockets, they need another star to keep contending. I feel like the Doc/Embiid comments were overblown, Simmons was coddled by Doc and the front office for the entire season including the bad playoffs games. Doc covered for him everytime he had really bad games, saying he doesn't need to shoot, he is a great defender and he makes everyone better on defense etc. etc. Seems to me the Doc/Embiid comments were just out of pure frustration hours after the loss, and it's not like Embiid even singled Simmons out. Embiid has had nothing but good things to say about Simmons for the past 3 years, especially for the amount of questions he gets asked about Simmons not improving his offense. I think Simmons wanting to leave has more to do with wanting to escape the media scrutiny, and the fact he couldn't live up to his potential especially in the playoffs. He just wants to fresh start without everyone breathing down his neck about never working on his jump shot, failing to shoot freethrows, failing in the playoffs over and over again. It's a ton of pressure, and I do feel his pain mentally. Because he knows everytime he steps on the court in the playoffs for 76ers, every mistake is going to be posted on the front page of ESPN, twitter, youtube. Also what did Morey ever do that supposedly drove Simmons away, he never said a thing about Simmons ever until Simmons decided he refused to play.
This has somehow escaped those who say Doc and Embiid are to blame for Simmons's wanting to leave. They have been defending him over and over again until the playoffs elimination. They could have thrown him under the bus way before that. I am not saying Doc was smart at saying those things in public. But you can clearly see the frustration. And that's on Simmons.
This. Some posters are only taking recent events into consideration. Simmons was treated like a star by the Sixers and they even covered for him. Eventually things came to a head…
Not to say Wiggins is max worthy, but he's improved just as an overall player, with the Worriers. Stefanie will get all the attention forever, but AW might be their best two-way player right now, by a longshot too. Sorry for tangent.
Imagine Giddey with Embiid instead of Simmons. Lord the Sixers have let his value rot. End of last season I would've put up a pretty package for him. Now? Wall and a top 55 protected 2nd.
He's literally put up the same stats every year since his rookie year. Embiid turned himself into the best all-around big man in decades while Simmons did nothing to improve. I'd be pissed too if I were Joel.
I agree the blame is to go around. Morey's price is a bit high, and has been very high throughout this whole debacle. Doc could've worded his exit interview better after G7. Embiid could've remained in his corner for the entire time. Though, Ben is the primary cause of the problem of this situation. Morey would not be interested in trading him, if he didn't hold up or communicate with the team in the off-season. Doc honestly cannot say Ben's a championship-level point guard, especially with the way that the team lost to the Hawks (a much weaker team) in only the 2nd Round of the playoffs. LeBron has nothing to do with this or even aspect of getting worse in his FT shooting (which was still better than Ben, even in latest season), because he's already a pretty great offensive player and was one, very early in his career. We don't know that about Ben, yet. Beyond, not being much of FT shooter, you cannot depend on him to score too many points or become even a mediocre 3 point shooter. If Ben could give the 76ers 24+ ppg, this wouldn't even be up for discussion. In this whole problem, he has sunk his own trade value, and also has lost any leverage that he had in this situation. For Doc, there's absolutely nothing he can do with Simmons. Head coaches in the modern NBA don't have that kind of power to press a player to play or even enough power to trade them. They could fire Doc, right now, but that wouldn't solve the situation with Ben in anyway. Players might also lose morale in the team, if they are still winning, as the season goes along.
