Picture this: It’s game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s a two point game with three and a half minutes to go, and an NBA All-Star has the ball in the post. He backs down the defender, does a spin move as the defender reaches, and finds himself wide open directly in front of the basket. In a shocking decision, this player does not shoot the wide open layup, but instead opts to hand the ball off to a less-open teammate who gets fouled. His team, heavily favored, goes on to lose the game and get eliminated from the playoffs.
We are talking, of course, about Ben Simmons, and the play that signaled the end of his time with the Philadelphia 76ers.
He couldn’t come back to the team after that. The image of Simmons passing up a wide open dunk was impossible for fans to forget, enough for even his teammate, Joel Embiid, to make note of in his post-game interview.
But it wasn’t just that play. It was a terrible series for Ben Simmons, who took a whopping three shots in the seven fourth quarters of that series. Not to mention his free throw shooting, which, to his credit, was only the worst in NBA playoff history.
But it wasn’t just that series. For his entire NBA career, everyone has begged Simmons to get a reliable jumper. Actually, scratch that—people don’t even care if it’s reliable, everyone has begged Simmons to just take jumpers. All they want is for him to at least throw it up there when he’s open, and he has consistently refused to do so. On top of that, the Simmons-Embiid pairing has never made sense, no matter how much some fans want to defend it. In the playoffs, when things tighten up, it has become painfully obvious that a seven-foot big man standing on the perimeter while a point guard stands in the paint is just a spacing disaster, and ensures that neither player can fully utilize their skill sets.
Having said all that, the Atlanta series was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And, in a city like Philadelphia, where the expectations are high, there was absolutely no way to justify bringing the team back together with all the same pieces. There was no way that you could put Ben Simmons in a Sixers jersey again next season, because as soon as he steps up to that line and airballs a free throw and the home fans start booing, the situation will be bad for everybody. And after the final game, both Joel Embiid and Doc Rivers, opted not to defend Simmons, but rather throw him under the bus, so it's clear that there is not much of a support system for him there anymore anyway.
This led to Simmons’ value immediately plummeting after game seven, and every person in the media attempting to come up with the best Ben-Simmons-for-random-asset trade proposal. It was a summer of:
“Should the Sixers trade Ben Simmons for Bradley Beal?”
“Simmons is definitely gonna end up on the Lakers with LeBron!”
“The Warriors should trade Wiseman, Wiggins, and their two draft picks for Simmons even though they already have Draymond.”
“Is Simmons even worth giving up another All-Star for?”
“Maybe all you can get for Simmons is a couple first-rounders at this point.”
“Personally, I wouldn’t trade for Ben Simmons if they wanted a box of jelly donuts in return.”
Okay, maybe I made that last one up, but you get the point. It seemed as if fans in these discussions were even hesitant to give up their teams’, like, ninth best player for someone who is supposed to be one of the best in the league.
The irony in all this discussion is that, less than a year ago, Ben Simmons was nearly the centerpiece in a James Harden trade. This trade was even closer to being completed than people realize; so much so that the Sixers had reason to think that the deal was done, until the Nets swooped in with a ridiculous offer to overtake them. Ben Simmons obviously wasn’t oblivious to the fact that his team tried to trade him, and it's possible that that had a certain psychological effect on him as the season progressed.
After the playoffs, Daryl Morey, President of Basketball Operations for the Sixers, proceeded to seek trades for Simmons as if his value was still at James Harden level. As an executive that is always insistent on winning trades and ensuring he is aware of every option, Morey did the thing where he called every team and asked for either their best player or just an olympic sized swimming pool full of assets. We all heard about what he had asked from the Warriors—Andrew Wiggins, James Wiseman, their two lottery picks in this year’s draft, and two extra first round picks in the future—an absolutely absurd amount of assets that, when you think about it, doesn’t even really make that much sense.
The main problem with this whole situation is this: If you are the Philadelphia 76ers, you have a generational talent in Joel Embiid on your team, who at peak health is a dominant force. When you have a dominant force, you must take advantage. This means that there is a delicate Embiid-window in which you must compete for a championship. Therefore, whoever you get in return for Simmons has to be able to contribute right away; the Sixers can’t afford to trade for draft picks.
So, now you want to trade Simmons for another All-Star. But here’s the second problem: Every other person in the league also watched the playoffs. So, after watching that, are there teams that are confident Simmons won’t do the exact same thing if he’s in the playoffs next year? Probably not. So who is going to give up an All-Star to trade for Ben Simmons if it's clear that Simmons probably can’t be one of the top two guys on a championship team?
Then, later in the summer, comes the news that Simmons has requested a trade and will not be reporting to Sixers training camp.
Despite the fact that he still has four years left on his deal, this isn’t unreasonable. He knew he was gonna be traded anyway, and it’s fair for him to want to move on to a new situation as soon as possible, given how complicated this has all become.
However, just because he has officially requested a trade, that doesn’t mean that suddenly there are new Simmons trade packages that weren’t available before. When the Sixers look around the league, the options are slim. They know that good teams won’t give up much for him, so the only options are the bad teams… But even the bad teams are wary of Ben Simmons. So much so that a bottom team like the Timberwolves would be unwilling to give up someone like D’Angelo Russell for him.
That’s where most trade theories have landed, at the worst teams in the league, i.e. the Timberwolves, the Spurs, and many people’s favorites, the Sacramento Kings.
BUT there’s yet another complicating factor, which is the Klutch aspect. Klutch Sports Group represents Ben Simmons, and they have become notorious for being powerful yet difficult agents to work with when getting their clients to certain landing spots, potentially at the cost of their likeability around the league. They orchestrated Anthony Davis’ exit from New Orleans and arrival to Los Angeles, which may even have been less ugly than the current Simmons situation.
So everything sounds good when we hear that maybe the Sixers should send Simmons to Sacramento for Buddy Hield and either Fox or Haliburton, or something similar. But, Klutch is insistent on getting their big clients traded to big markets. The most hilarious part of all this is that Ben Simmons has said he prefers to be traded to ‘one of the three California teams,’ which is just a fantastic quote given that there are four teams in California! (As a Californian, I understand that this is an easy mistake to make. We do not much acknowledge the existence of Sacramento as our capital, but even I would admit to Mr. Simmons that Sacramento is a place).
Essentially, it all comes down to this: The entire Ben Simmons fiasco has become a staring contest between:
1. Ben Simmons, one of the most talented yet image conscious players in the league,
2. Klutch (and Rich Paul), the most powerful agents in the league,
3. Daryl Morey, one of the most powerful executives in the league,
4. Doc Rivers, one of the most powerful coaches in the league, and
5. The city of Philadelphia, one of the harshest places to play in the entire league.
And all of this, coupled with the fact that no team is just going to take Ben Simmons to resolve the situation after seeing him lay an egg in the playoffs.
The most important thing that should come out of this is potentially a reset on what our expectations for Simmons should be: an athletic, talented playmaker in transition who is absolutely incredible on the defensive end, and probably can’t play at the end of important games. If this was his image, teams would love to have him as the best version ever of a role guy—the only problem is that he makes $35 million a year, which is not what you want to be paying for someone who doesn’t shoot the basketball.
It has become a mess, and there is no clear answer in sight. It is hard to find the Ben Simmons defenders out there, those who believe that with a change in scenery, he will become great and gain back his confidence. But even with tempered expectations, it’s not unreasonable to think that a new situation will benefit him, because no matter how complicated it seems, Ben Simmons is going to be on a new team at some point.
Now, if only we can get him to stop posting off-season videos of him draining threes and instead get him to go to the gym and shoot a free throw or two… or a thousand.
