The Sixers need to trade Ben Simmons, for his sake and their own
BILL STREICHER/USA TODAY SPORTS
The Philadelphia 76ers have a Ben Simmons problem. And right now there appears to be only one solution.
Game 7s have a habit of spotlighting the truth about a player, a team, and a franchise. It showed us that Joel Embiid is a great player, but perhaps not a title-winning player just yet. It showed us Tobias Harris scoring at will in the regular season doesn't mean a whole lot when everything is on the line in the playoffs.
One truth stands above the rest — Ben Simmons probably shouldn't be in Philadelphia next season. Not because he's a worthless basketball player, not because he and Embiid are mortal enemies, not because you're afraid of him bolting for warm weather when his contract eventually runs out. But both sides can only keep up the facade for so long. The Sixers and Simmons both need something close to a fresh start if they're ever going to become the best versions of themselves, a fact that was made clear as the Sixers tried to pick up the pieces after their soul-crushing defeat.
Doc Rivers, a strident defender of Ben Simmons all throughout the year, went as far as questioning the intelligence of anyone who dared to ask whether Simmons should be subbed out of a game over his free-throw issues. Beaten down over the course of their series with Atlanta, Rivers not only conceded that battle by removing Simmons from the game, he struggled to defend his point guard following Sunday night's loss.
"I don't know that question, or the answer to that right now," Rivers said when asked whether he still believed Simmons could be a title-winning point guard. "I don't know the answer to that."
It's both shocking to hear that sort of pivot and easy to understand the sudden crisis of confidence for Rivers. Simmons finishes his 2021 playoff run with the single-worst mark from the free-throw line of any player who has taken 70 or more attempts, and that free-throw number only tells part of the story. Worse than that was his total disregard for attacking the basket, the only method that actually allows him to score during a basketball game.
The lasting memory of this game and this series will not be a Trae Young stepback jumper, a John Collins poster dunk, or even Joel Embiid's costly turnover in the final minutes of Game 7. It will be Simmons under the hoop, a dunk opportunity waiting in front of him, and the 6'10" Australian opting to let someone else, in a worse position, try to score instead.
It was a moment not even the world's biggest Simmons hater could have scripted. Joel Embiid threw his hands up in exasperation after the play, then quickly collected himself and dapped up his teammate. And while he tried to frame the moment as part of a larger run of team failures, including his own, the big man could not help but express his shock an hour after we'd all seen it happen in real-time.
"I mean, I'll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we — I don't know how to say it — but I thought the turning point was just we had an open shot and we made one free throw and we missed the other and then they came down and scored," Embiid said. "We didn't get a good possession on the other end and Trae came back and he made a 3. And then from there, down four, it's on me. I turned the ball over and tried to make something happen from the perimeter. But I thought that was the turning point."
Embiid was merely seeing what a packed arena and millions of people at home saw on their TVs. The Philadelphia crowd tried to will Simmons into the more effective version of himself that we saw as recently as the Wizards series, urging him on each time Simmons got the ball and began moving toward the opponent's basket. The first few times he ducked his head and passed out, disappointed, "Awwwww!" yells moved around the arena. Those quickly turned to unrest, to boos, to disgust at having to watch this guy play at all, with some fans chanting to trade Simmons before the game had even ended.
"No one will offer a more succinct explanation of the problem with Ben Simmons than, 'I am who I am, it is what it is' no matter how hard they try. Everyone knows who he is, and that is the problem."
The concept of a trade was something Simmons didn't seem to consider in the moments after the game, and to his credit, his initial response was graceful, offering a confession that he had not done enough offensively, that he was happy to be in the city of Philadelphia, and that short-term vitriol is part of the deal when you fail here, a thing you sign up for knowing the highs are much higher as a result. Had Simmons left it there, it would have been a rare moment of vulnerability from a hard-headed man, offered in conjunction with his mid-series admission that his problems at the line were mental.
But there was just enough time on his Zoom call for Simmons to bury himself. Asked whether he feels like there's something different in the postseason that doesn't allow him to be the guy he believes he is in the regular season, Simmons was right back to being standoffish.
"No, no, no, I'm not going to let you say that. We lost, it sucks. I am who I am, it is what it is. It's not easy to win, and it showed," Simmons said. "Nets got finished by [the] Bucks, it's not easy to win. And I work, so, the first thing I'm going to do is clear my mind and get my mental right."
He has been humiliated as much as a max contract player possibly could be, turned into a national laughingstock on the sport's biggest stage. Shaquille O'Neal, the most infamous free-throw failure to ever step on a basketball court, spent part of Sunday's postgame claiming he would have knocked Simmons out for playing this way if they'd shared a locker room. Charles Barkley got in on it too. I am not the sort of person who wants or asks for professional athletes to be humble — making it at all requires a level of self-belief that defies rationality, even for the last man on the bench. But no one will offer a more succinct explanation of the problem with Ben Simmons than, "I am who I am, it is what it is" no matter how hard they try.
Everyone knows who he is, and that is the problem.
The question is how you fix it, and Philadelphia has certainly thrown a lot of stuff at the wall to see what works. They have done everything from starting T.J. McConnell next to him to trading for Jimmy Butler to paying $100 million for a stretch big to revamping the coaching staff. All roads lead to the same place. The best retort any Simmons loyalist can offer is to play him more as a small-ball center, as if using his minutes to provide cover for Embiid could possibly be the team-defining answer.
There are many critics who will tell you Simmons does not put in the work. I would push back on that with a more damning hypothesis — he puts in the work and is unable and unwilling to use it when it counts. He has been dismissing critics as people who don't know basketball for years, and in hindsight, it feels less about arrogance than it is about obscuring his reasons for never leaving his comfort zone. His quest to avoid failure is so persistent that he arrives there all the same, inaction having the same effect as clanging a bunch of jumpers off the back rim.
The Sixers, as the results on the floor show, need something that Simmons cannot offer them right now. Joel Embiid is in the prime of his career, an MVP-caliber talent dying for someone to make his life easier on offense. But Simmons, just 24 years old, needs something the Sixers can't offer him right now: a step back in responsibility, in expectations, and a chance to allow those failures to happen without the weight of expectations crushing him.
There shouldn't be anger if either side goes on to greatness without the other, just a tinge of sadness because it didn't have to be this way.
Where he goes and what they could get for him is another matter entirely. Simmons' value has taken an unthinkable hit over the course of this season. The Sixers once refused to entertain the idea of moving him for Kawhi Leonard, the same Kawhi Leonard who would go on to beat them en route to a title. The drop-off to where he is now is the best case for keeping him in a Sixers uniform for the time being — rehabbing his image and selling to a higher bidder at the next opportune moment is the path to maximum return.
Is it tenable to hold out for that hopeful possibility? The mental component of Simmons' game will almost certainly not be aided by playing in this city, nor should this fanbase feel a responsibility to put his needs before anyone else's. Philadelphia spent this entire playoff run urging him to be his best self, rewarded for their efforts with a string of games where each was more impotent than the last. They have battled other fanbases in defense of this guy, promising each other this year was different, only for Simmons to turn in what will probably go down as one of the worst series an All-Star has ever played. Seeing him on the floor will represent, on some level, the Sixers' acceptance of who he is and the postseason disappointment he represents. And no matter how hard he works to hint at bigger things to come, no one will believe what he's selling.
That is not the environment for a player working through an admitted mental issue to find success. And it is not fair to expect anyone, whether it is his teammates or a diehard fan from West Philly, to circle the wagons for a guy who has told you in giant neon letters that he isn't willing to risk failure for the sake of this team. Here, he will always be Ben Simmons, No. 1 overall pick, max contract player, final piece of The Process. But he can be something else, perhaps whatever he wants, in another market, with a support system that doesn't bear the scar tissue of his failures to date.
This has been a year of putting your best foot forward while knowing it could all come crashing down at any time, whether due to COVID or injuries or some other random tragedy that could drop out of the sky at a moment's notice. All year, the Sixers have said the right things about Simmons. And they should have — whether you believe in the guy or not, he was their teammate and a big part of Philadelphia's success up through the first round of the playoffs, a friend who they had an obligation to stand by.
But unlike members of your family, you get to choose your friends, and good friends know when it's time to let someone go for the sake of both parties. There shouldn't be anger if either side goes on to greatness without the other, just a tinge of sadness because it didn't have to be this way.
The shame of it all is this was the year goddamnit. This year was/is/will be the "easiest" path to a title, and they're not ever going to see that again.
"That’s not to say that Embiid was perfect in this ill-fated series against the underdog Hawks. He wasn’t, and his 21 turnovers to nine assists over these last three games can attest to that. But at the end of the day Embiid just finished off a seven-game series where he averaged 30.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, shot 47 percent from the field and got to the free-throw line nearly 12 times per night, and played excellent defense against a team whose pick-and-roll play and perimeter shooting should be kryptonite for a big, physical center.
And he did all of that while playing on a torn meniscus.
And it wasn’t enough. Embiid deserved better."
"Such is the penalty for years of mismanagement and organizational dysfunction, which was kick-started by an ownership group that caved to outside pressure when they looked to replace Sam Hinkie at the top of the basketball operations department. That was then followed by two job searches for lead basketball executives that were anything but exhaustive, eventually settling on Bryan Colangelo, the son of their special adviser, the first time around, then Elton Brand, who had all of one year of front office experience under his belt, as the guy to lead an unnecessarily murky collaborative front-office group at one of the most pivotal periods in franchise history.
That is the penalty of using two high draft picks on Markelle Fultz; of failing to keep Jimmy Butler happy and bought into the program; of targeting Josh Richardson and Al Horford to surround the world’s pre-eminent post-up threat; of talking yourself into Harris being more than he has ever been; and of watching as Simmons’ trade value plummet from its apex of a few years ago.
Those have all had a drastic bearing on the team’s championship equity and on its path to reaching the best version of itself. Nailing just one of those decisions could have left the Sixers in a much more favorable position and capable of being the true title contender that Embiid deserves."
"It is almost impossibly tough to get a player of Embiid’s caliber, and wasting the prime of one of the best players in franchise history is the most unforgivable sin in this sport. We’re not there yet, but the mistakes of the past half-decade make that a legitimate concern. The ship hasn’t sunk, but there are some holes that need to be plugged and plugged quickly. Morey now becomes one of the most important people in the Philadelphia sports landscape."
"That’s not to say that Embiid was perfect in this ill-fated series against the underdog Hawks. He wasn’t, and his 21 turnovers to nine assists over these last three games can attest to that. But at the end of the day Embiid just finished off a seven-game series where he averaged 30.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, shot 47 percent from the field and got to the free-throw line nearly 12 times per night, and played excellent defense against a team whose pick-and-roll play and perimeter shooting should be kryptonite for a big, physical center.
And he did all of that while playing on a torn meniscus.
And it wasn’t enough. Embiid deserved better."
"Such is the penalty for years of mismanagement and organizational dysfunction, which was kick-started by an ownership group that caved to outside pressure when they looked to replace Sam Hinkie at the top of the basketball operations department. That was then followed by two job searches for lead basketball executives that were anything but exhaustive, eventually settling on Bryan Colangelo, the son of their special adviser, the first time around, then Elton Brand, who had all of one year of front office experience under his belt, as the guy to lead an unnecessarily murky collaborative front-office group at one of the most pivotal periods in franchise history.
That is the penalty of using two high draft picks on Markelle Fultz; of failing to keep Jimmy Butler happy and bought into the program; of targeting Josh Richardson and Al Horford to surround the world’s pre-eminent post-up threat; of talking yourself into Harris being more than he has ever been; and of watching as Simmons’ trade value plummet from its apex of a few years ago.
Those have all had a drastic bearing on the team’s championship equity and on its path to reaching the best version of itself. Nailing just one of those decisions could have left the Sixers in a much more favorable position and capable of being the true title contender that Embiid deserves."
"It is almost impossibly tough to get a player of Embiid’s caliber, and wasting the prime of one of the best players in franchise history is the most unforgivable sin in this sport. We’re not there yet, but the mistakes of the past half-decade make that a legitimate concern. The ship hasn’t sunk, but there are some holes that need to be plugged and plugged quickly. Morey now becomes one of the most important people in the Philadelphia sports landscape."
He's the best writer in the city, of any sport and he is 100% correct.
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
He's the best writer in the city, of any sport and he is 100% correct.
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
Yeah, like he says in the piece Morey isn't without his mistakes so far, but he certainly put them in a much better position than they were left after the 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 seasons. He's absolutely crucial to all of this now. Howie for the Birds and Morey for the Sixers are at the top of the list with regards to being under a microscope this year (albeit for different reasons).
He's the best writer in the city, of any sport and he is 100% correct.
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
Yeah, like he says in the piece Morey isn't without his mistakes so far, but he certainly put them in a much better position than they were left after the 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 seasons. He's absolutely crucial to all of this now. Howie for the Birds and Morey for the Sixers are at the top of the list with regards to being under a microscope this year (albeit for different reasons).
Wonder how the season would've played out if they had pulled the trigger on the Harden deal....or even the Lowry one for that matter.
And Doc Rivers should not get off so easy. Everyone blamed Bret last Summer, and to be fair it was time to move on, but this was a better team that just collapsed and Ben regressed even further while Doc kept making the same excuses for him all year long. His rotations in the playoffs were mostly terrible. Since Morey didn't hire him, I bet he considers making a move. But I doubt it happens after one year...
He's the best writer in the city, of any sport and he is 100% correct.
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
Yeah, like he says in the piece Morey isn't without his mistakes so far, but he certainly put them in a much better position than they were left after the 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 seasons. He's absolutely crucial to all of this now. Howie for the Birds and Morey for the Sixers are at the top of the list with regards to being under a microscope this year (albeit for different reasons).
Wonder how the season would've played out if they had pulled the trigger on the Harden deal....or even the Lowry one for that matter.
And Doc Rivers should not get off so easy. Everyone blamed Bret last Summer, and to be fair it was time to move on, but this was a better team that just collapsed and Ben regressed even further while Doc kept making the same excuses for him all year long. His rotations in the playoffs were mostly terrible. Since Morey didn't hire him, I bet he considers making a move. But I doubt it happens after one year...
Like I said, you don't lose a 26 point lead of a game (and 18 point leads back-to-back) unless that's squarely on the coach. It's funny you can see the politics at play in Doc's quote about basically (paraphrasing), "We were ousted in the first round last year and made it to game 7 of the conference semis. I'm not going to turn this into a negative." This is a guy publicly defending himself to the fans and the organization. But, yeah, I don't think Doc goes anywhere just yet. And I still stand by that Bret got a raw deal.
The Harden/Lowry what-ifs I think are completely 100% hindsight revisionist history. I think if they did in fact trade for Harden or Lowry we would've been all "FUCK BEN. LET"S FUCKING GO." But we were all thinking at the time that we weren't totally comfortable with either trade prospect and didn't totally want to pull the trigger. Of course, looking back, yeah, no-brainer.
-The Bulls guard is a year and change older than Simmons and entering the final year of a contract that will pay him $19.5 million. Chicago is in a tough spot with a potential extension on him, either needing to cut back on offseason moves to do a renegotiation-and-extend or let him play out his walk year and hope it can re-sign him at or near the max.
Trading LaVine for Simmons, however (with Al-Farouq Aminu thrown in to even salaries), accomplishes quite a bit for both teams. The Sixers get a knockdown off-the-dribble shooter for the end of the shot clock, and while LaVine isn’t quite the playmaker that some of the other guards I’ve mentioned are, he’s quietly improved in this area. On a Bulls offense devoid of threats, he still managed to be a potent offensive weapon this past season and made his first All-Star team. No, LaVine is not a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, but replacing Simmons with him makes it easier for the Sixers to play their Greens and Thybulles.
And from Chicago’s perspective, Simmons can be the guy he never could be in Philly. The Bulls’ center, Nikola Vucevic, is a deadly shooter comfortable operating from the elbows, which gives Simmons plenty of room to roam closer to the rim … whether from the dunker spot, posting up guards or slashing off the dribble. The Bulls could use him as a screener and let him roll to the rim, a pathway never explored enough in Philly (it’s criminal the Sixers didn’t use him as a backup five when Embiid was off the floor), especially once Chicago brings in more shooting. Fortunately, the Bulls still have the cap flexibility to do this.
Meanwhile, LaVine for Simmons also helps reset the clock in Chicago. Simmons is signed for four more years and is 24 years old, so it buys the Bulls a bit more time to get everything right with what remains a pretty flawed roster. That’s probably a better idea than going all-in on this season just to keep LaVine happy and still quite possibly failing at it.
For as long as Vooch is the other star in the Windy City, Simmons also gives the Bulls an elite defender to pair next to him. That’s the thing: Simmons can help the right team a lot more than he helps the Sixers. Even after The Pass, for instance, Simmons picked Trae Young’s dribble twice in less than a minute. (Side note: It’s amazing Philadelphia didn’t take more advantage of him and Thybulle by pressing and trapping in non-desperation situations after it nearly stole them Game 1.)
So, LaVine for Simmons it is…
Or not.
The thing about trades is that they’re easy to drum up on your own but much harder to execute when two teams need to come to an agreement on value. There could be all kinds of reasons the Bulls don’t want to make a deal with Philly or the Sixers wouldn’t want to do a deal Chicago would find acceptable. The reality is that for every 100 trade calls we made in Memphis, maybe one or two of them yielded a transaction.
But in the wake of The Pass, one important dynamic of any Philly trade conversation has changed. Previously, a Simmons deal was something the Sixers could do. Now, it is something they must do.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
Pretty sure mostly everyone here spent years supporting and defending Ben Simmons, and man do we look like idiots now. I don't ever wanna watch that guy "play" ever again. Just pathetic - the worst effort in any postseason since the 1919 Black Sox.
Spectrum 10/27/09; New Orleans JazzFest 5/1/10; Made in America 9/2/12; WF Center 10/21/13; WF Center 10/22/13; Baltimore 10/27/13; WF Center 4/28/16; WF Center 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22; Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; WF Center 9/7/24; WF Center 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
Pretty sure mostly everyone here spent years supporting and defending Ben Simmons, and man do we look like idiots now. I don't ever wanna watch that guy "play" ever again. Just pathetic - the worst effort in any postseason since the 1919 Black Sox.
Didn't Shoeless Joe have a good series though? I only remember that cause of "Field of Dreams"
8/28/98- Camden, NJ
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Tres Mts.- 3/23/11- Philly. PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
He's the best writer in the city, of any sport and he is 100% correct.
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
Yeah, like he says in the piece Morey isn't without his mistakes so far, but he certainly put them in a much better position than they were left after the 2018-2019 & 2019-2020 seasons. He's absolutely crucial to all of this now. Howie for the Birds and Morey for the Sixers are at the top of the list with regards to being under a microscope this year (albeit for different reasons).
Wonder how the season would've played out if they had pulled the trigger on the Harden deal....or even the Lowry one for that matter.
And Doc Rivers should not get off so easy. Everyone blamed Bret last Summer, and to be fair it was time to move on, but this was a better team that just collapsed and Ben regressed even further while Doc kept making the same excuses for him all year long. His rotations in the playoffs were mostly terrible. Since Morey didn't hire him, I bet he considers making a move. But I doubt it happens after one year...
Like I said, you don't lose a 26 point lead of a game (and 18 point leads back-to-back) unless that's squarely on the coach. It's funny you can see the politics at play in Doc's quote about basically (paraphrasing), "We were ousted in the first round last year and made it to game 7 of the conference semis. I'm not going to turn this into a negative." This is a guy publicly defending himself to the fans and the organization. But, yeah, I don't think Doc goes anywhere just yet. And I still stand by that Bret got a raw deal.
The Harden/Lowry what-ifs I think are completely 100% hindsight revisionist history. I think if they did in fact trade for Harden or Lowry we would've been all "FUCK BEN. LET"S FUCKING GO." But we were all thinking at the time that we weren't totally comfortable with either trade prospect and didn't totally want to pull the trigger. Of course, looking back, yeah, no-brainer.
Doc Rivers IS the reason they lost the series. He did the same shit last year with Clippers and not calling a time out and wanting the team to "get out of it" crap. Point/turnover after point/turnover and never called a time out to readjust...
Fire Doc. The team deserves better. He had a good run and has one Chip as a coach. Time to retire.
Doc sucked and I think everyone here has agreed with that, but a number 1 pick max contract player not taking a shot in the 4th quarter for like 4 straight games and shooting something like 20% FTs is the reason they lost.
Tokyo Olympics: Ben Simmons 76ers teammate Matisse Thybulle set to arrive in camp as Simmons withdraws
Matt LogueNCA NewsWire
June 28, 2021 3:03AM
Ben Simmons’ Philadelphia 76ers teammate Matisse Thybulle is expected to arrive in Australia’s pre-Olympic camp in LA on Wednesday, but Simmons has officially withdrawn from the Tokyo Games.
Thybulle’s pending arrival in camp is a big boost for the Australians given the Sydney-raised guard’s strong defensive mindset as shown through his NBA All-Defensive Second Team selection this season.
Simmons, though, informed Basketball Australia officials that he plans to spend the off-season working on his skill development, which will have major ramifications on who the Boomers select and how the team plays.
It comes as Boomers coach Brian Goorjian is feeling “anxious” as he prepares to cut four players from a star-studded list to select his final 12-man squad for the Tokyo Olympic campaign.
Goorjian arrived in Los Angeles late last week to commence a drop-in camp in preparations for the Games alongside veteran locks like Patty Mills, Joe Ingles and Aron Baynes.
The team’s original 19-man squad has been reduced to 17 players after Ryan Broekhoff (mental health) and Isaac Humphries (injury) pulled out.
Simmons’ withdrawal from the Olympics cuts the squad down to 16, meaning only one player from the current squad will miss out on Tokyo if you include the three replacement players.
The Boomers will select a final 12-man squad, and three replacements, ahead of warm-up games in Las Vegas before travelling to the Games.
It leaves Goorjian with a difficult decision to cut one player from a strong list of experienced and rising stars.
“Guys like Josh Green, Brock Motum, Duop Reath, and Xavier Cooks – there are five or six players that I’m anxious to see,” Goorjian said.
“I’ve got to move this thing to 15, so there is probably four or five spots there and there are guys there that I just haven’t seen in this environment before.”
Goorjian is also keen to run his eye over NBA stars Dante Exum and Matthew Dellavedova, who are both returning from extended injury lay-offs.
Exum hasn’t played since hurting his calf in early January, restricting him to just six games in the 2020-2021 NBA season.
Dellavedova has also faced an extensive stint on the sidelines after suffering a neck strain injury on April 25.
The NBA championship winning guard also missed the NBA season’s first 47 games because of a severe concussion and whiplash.
Goorjian, though, is feeling optimistic about Dellavedova and Exum’s fitness.
“I’m also anxious to see Delly and Exum,” he said.
“My way has been synergy and I haven’t been able to do that with those players, but I’ll get a good look at them before we move on to Vegas.”
Boomers legend Andrew Bogut believes the last spots in the Australian squad are “wide open”, and could come down to team synergy over talent.
“For Goorj, it is about figuring out what the team looks like,” Bogut said.
“I think our first six or seven players are pretty easy to pick, but it is that bench/fringe squad that some tough decisions are going to have to be made.
“There is also some guys playing in Europe that we haven’t seen much of, and it is hard to get a take on.
“So, it is going to be tough and those last five picks will probably be based on fit and feel rather than just names or talent.
“The other thing we’ve got to work out is who complements other players. For example, someone who is a flat-out shooter that you just can’t leave out, a lockdown defender or a hustle rebound guy.
“It just depends which way Goorj wants to play.”
The Boomers’ first Olympic warm-up game will be against Argentina in Las Vegas on July 10 before games against Team USA on July 12 and 16 and Nigeria on July 13.
Pretty sure mostly everyone here spent years supporting and defending Ben Simmons, and man do we look like idiots now. I don't ever wanna watch that guy "play" ever again. Just pathetic - the worst effort in any postseason since the 1919 Black Sox.
Didn't Shoeless Joe have a good series though? I only remember that cause of "Field of Dreams"
Shoeless Joe got paid the most money of any Black Sock and observers noted that he had some crafty "poor" defensive plays that weren't errors. The guy who really got cheated was 3B Buck Weaver, who wasn't part of the scam at all, just happened to overhear something and didn't tell anyone.
I mean, Ben didn't "throw" the series but he was totally non-existent and a waste of space on the floor. If Maxey was in they had a shot at pulling it out - the rookie.
Spectrum 10/27/09; New Orleans JazzFest 5/1/10; Made in America 9/2/12; WF Center 10/21/13; WF Center 10/22/13; Baltimore 10/27/13; WF Center 4/28/16; WF Center 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22; Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; WF Center 9/7/24; WF Center 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
Comments
The Sixers need to trade Ben Simmons, for his sake and their own
The Philadelphia 76ers have a Ben Simmons problem. And right now there appears to be only one solution.
Game 7s have a habit of spotlighting the truth about a player, a team, and a franchise. It showed us that Joel Embiid is a great player, but perhaps not a title-winning player just yet. It showed us Tobias Harris scoring at will in the regular season doesn't mean a whole lot when everything is on the line in the playoffs.
One truth stands above the rest — Ben Simmons probably shouldn't be in Philadelphia next season. Not because he's a worthless basketball player, not because he and Embiid are mortal enemies, not because you're afraid of him bolting for warm weather when his contract eventually runs out. But both sides can only keep up the facade for so long. The Sixers and Simmons both need something close to a fresh start if they're ever going to become the best versions of themselves, a fact that was made clear as the Sixers tried to pick up the pieces after their soul-crushing defeat.
Doc Rivers, a strident defender of Ben Simmons all throughout the year, went as far as questioning the intelligence of anyone who dared to ask whether Simmons should be subbed out of a game over his free-throw issues. Beaten down over the course of their series with Atlanta, Rivers not only conceded that battle by removing Simmons from the game, he struggled to defend his point guard following Sunday night's loss.
"I don't know that question, or the answer to that right now," Rivers said when asked whether he still believed Simmons could be a title-winning point guard. "I don't know the answer to that."
It's both shocking to hear that sort of pivot and easy to understand the sudden crisis of confidence for Rivers. Simmons finishes his 2021 playoff run with the single-worst mark from the free-throw line of any player who has taken 70 or more attempts, and that free-throw number only tells part of the story. Worse than that was his total disregard for attacking the basket, the only method that actually allows him to score during a basketball game.
The lasting memory of this game and this series will not be a Trae Young stepback jumper, a John Collins poster dunk, or even Joel Embiid's costly turnover in the final minutes of Game 7. It will be Simmons under the hoop, a dunk opportunity waiting in front of him, and the 6'10" Australian opting to let someone else, in a worse position, try to score instead.
It was a moment not even the world's biggest Simmons hater could have scripted. Joel Embiid threw his hands up in exasperation after the play, then quickly collected himself and dapped up his teammate. And while he tried to frame the moment as part of a larger run of team failures, including his own, the big man could not help but express his shock an hour after we'd all seen it happen in real-time.
"I mean, I'll be honest. I thought the turning point was when we — I don't know how to say it — but I thought the turning point was just we had an open shot and we made one free throw and we missed the other and then they came down and scored," Embiid said. "We didn't get a good possession on the other end and Trae came back and he made a 3. And then from there, down four, it's on me. I turned the ball over and tried to make something happen from the perimeter. But I thought that was the turning point."
Embiid was merely seeing what a packed arena and millions of people at home saw on their TVs. The Philadelphia crowd tried to will Simmons into the more effective version of himself that we saw as recently as the Wizards series, urging him on each time Simmons got the ball and began moving toward the opponent's basket. The first few times he ducked his head and passed out, disappointed, "Awwwww!" yells moved around the arena. Those quickly turned to unrest, to boos, to disgust at having to watch this guy play at all, with some fans chanting to trade Simmons before the game had even ended.
The concept of a trade was something Simmons didn't seem to consider in the moments after the game, and to his credit, his initial response was graceful, offering a confession that he had not done enough offensively, that he was happy to be in the city of Philadelphia, and that short-term vitriol is part of the deal when you fail here, a thing you sign up for knowing the highs are much higher as a result. Had Simmons left it there, it would have been a rare moment of vulnerability from a hard-headed man, offered in conjunction with his mid-series admission that his problems at the line were mental.
But there was just enough time on his Zoom call for Simmons to bury himself. Asked whether he feels like there's something different in the postseason that doesn't allow him to be the guy he believes he is in the regular season, Simmons was right back to being standoffish.
"No, no, no, I'm not going to let you say that. We lost, it sucks. I am who I am, it is what it is. It's not easy to win, and it showed," Simmons said. "Nets got finished by [the] Bucks, it's not easy to win. And I work, so, the first thing I'm going to do is clear my mind and get my mental right."
He has been humiliated as much as a max contract player possibly could be, turned into a national laughingstock on the sport's biggest stage. Shaquille O'Neal, the most infamous free-throw failure to ever step on a basketball court, spent part of Sunday's postgame claiming he would have knocked Simmons out for playing this way if they'd shared a locker room. Charles Barkley got in on it too. I am not the sort of person who wants or asks for professional athletes to be humble — making it at all requires a level of self-belief that defies rationality, even for the last man on the bench. But no one will offer a more succinct explanation of the problem with Ben Simmons than, "I am who I am, it is what it is" no matter how hard they try.
Everyone knows who he is, and that is the problem.
The question is how you fix it, and Philadelphia has certainly thrown a lot of stuff at the wall to see what works. They have done everything from starting T.J. McConnell next to him to trading for Jimmy Butler to paying $100 million for a stretch big to revamping the coaching staff. All roads lead to the same place. The best retort any Simmons loyalist can offer is to play him more as a small-ball center, as if using his minutes to provide cover for Embiid could possibly be the team-defining answer.
There are many critics who will tell you Simmons does not put in the work. I would push back on that with a more damning hypothesis — he puts in the work and is unable and unwilling to use it when it counts. He has been dismissing critics as people who don't know basketball for years, and in hindsight, it feels less about arrogance than it is about obscuring his reasons for never leaving his comfort zone. His quest to avoid failure is so persistent that he arrives there all the same, inaction having the same effect as clanging a bunch of jumpers off the back rim.
The Sixers, as the results on the floor show, need something that Simmons cannot offer them right now. Joel Embiid is in the prime of his career, an MVP-caliber talent dying for someone to make his life easier on offense. But Simmons, just 24 years old, needs something the Sixers can't offer him right now: a step back in responsibility, in expectations, and a chance to allow those failures to happen without the weight of expectations crushing him.
Where he goes and what they could get for him is another matter entirely. Simmons' value has taken an unthinkable hit over the course of this season. The Sixers once refused to entertain the idea of moving him for Kawhi Leonard, the same Kawhi Leonard who would go on to beat them en route to a title. The drop-off to where he is now is the best case for keeping him in a Sixers uniform for the time being — rehabbing his image and selling to a higher bidder at the next opportune moment is the path to maximum return.
Is it tenable to hold out for that hopeful possibility? The mental component of Simmons' game will almost certainly not be aided by playing in this city, nor should this fanbase feel a responsibility to put his needs before anyone else's. Philadelphia spent this entire playoff run urging him to be his best self, rewarded for their efforts with a string of games where each was more impotent than the last. They have battled other fanbases in defense of this guy, promising each other this year was different, only for Simmons to turn in what will probably go down as one of the worst series an All-Star has ever played. Seeing him on the floor will represent, on some level, the Sixers' acceptance of who he is and the postseason disappointment he represents. And no matter how hard he works to hint at bigger things to come, no one will believe what he's selling.
That is not the environment for a player working through an admitted mental issue to find success. And it is not fair to expect anyone, whether it is his teammates or a diehard fan from West Philly, to circle the wagons for a guy who has told you in giant neon letters that he isn't willing to risk failure for the sake of this team. Here, he will always be Ben Simmons, No. 1 overall pick, max contract player, final piece of The Process. But he can be something else, perhaps whatever he wants, in another market, with a support system that doesn't bear the scar tissue of his failures to date.
This has been a year of putting your best foot forward while knowing it could all come crashing down at any time, whether due to COVID or injuries or some other random tragedy that could drop out of the sky at a moment's notice. All year, the Sixers have said the right things about Simmons. And they should have — whether you believe in the guy or not, he was their teammate and a big part of Philadelphia's success up through the first round of the playoffs, a friend who they had an obligation to stand by.
But unlike members of your family, you get to choose your friends, and good friends know when it's time to let someone go for the sake of both parties. There shouldn't be anger if either side goes on to greatness without the other, just a tinge of sadness because it didn't have to be this way.
https://theathletic.com/2664254/2021/06/21/the-sixers-players-coach-organization-failed-joel-embiid/
That's why Game 5 is right up there with the all time losses. It was Tampa in '03 with a very beatable Raiders team waiting for them all over again.
"That’s not to say that Embiid was perfect in this ill-fated series against the underdog Hawks. He wasn’t, and his 21 turnovers to nine assists over these last three games can attest to that. But at the end of the day Embiid just finished off a seven-game series where he averaged 30.4 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, shot 47 percent from the field and got to the free-throw line nearly 12 times per night, and played excellent defense against a team whose pick-and-roll play and perimeter shooting should be kryptonite for a big, physical center.
And he did all of that while playing on a torn meniscus.
And it wasn’t enough. Embiid deserved better."
"Such is the penalty for years of mismanagement and organizational dysfunction, which was kick-started by an ownership group that caved to outside pressure when they looked to replace Sam Hinkie at the top of the basketball operations department. That was then followed by two job searches for lead basketball executives that were anything but exhaustive, eventually settling on Bryan Colangelo, the son of their special adviser, the first time around, then Elton Brand, who had all of one year of front office experience under his belt, as the guy to lead an unnecessarily murky collaborative front-office group at one of the most pivotal periods in franchise history.
That is the penalty of using two high draft picks on Markelle Fultz; of failing to keep Jimmy Butler happy and bought into the program; of targeting Josh Richardson and Al Horford to surround the world’s pre-eminent post-up threat; of talking yourself into Harris being more than he has ever been; and of watching as Simmons’ trade value plummet from its apex of a few years ago.
Those have all had a drastic bearing on the team’s championship equity and on its path to reaching the best version of itself. Nailing just one of those decisions could have left the Sixers in a much more favorable position and capable of being the true title contender that Embiid deserves."
"It is almost impossibly tough to get a player of Embiid’s caliber, and wasting the prime of one of the best players in franchise history is the most unforgivable sin in this sport. We’re not there yet, but the mistakes of the past half-decade make that a legitimate concern. The ship hasn’t sunk, but there are some holes that need to be plugged and plugged quickly. Morey now becomes one of the most important people in the Philadelphia sports landscape."
Pearl Jam bootlegs:
http://wegotshit.blogspot.com
At least we have a competent guy in charge of the front office. I really do trust Morey to make the best possible moves.
And Doc Rivers should not get off so easy. Everyone blamed Bret last Summer, and to be fair it was time to move on, but this was a better team that just collapsed and Ben regressed even further while Doc kept making the same excuses for him all year long. His rotations in the playoffs were mostly terrible. Since Morey didn't hire him, I bet he considers making a move. But I doubt it happens after one year...
The Harden/Lowry what-ifs I think are completely 100% hindsight revisionist history. I think if they did in fact trade for Harden or Lowry we would've been all "FUCK BEN. LET"S FUCKING GO." But we were all thinking at the time that we weren't totally comfortable with either trade prospect and didn't totally want to pull the trigger. Of course, looking back, yeah, no-brainer.
https://theathletic.com/2664449/2021/06/21/hollinger-ben-simmons-trade-seems-inevitable-after-the-pass-but-how-can-sixers-pull-it-off/
-The Bulls guard is a year and change older than Simmons and entering the final year of a contract that will pay him $19.5 million. Chicago is in a tough spot with a potential extension on him, either needing to cut back on offseason moves to do a renegotiation-and-extend or let him play out his walk year and hope it can re-sign him at or near the max.
Trading LaVine for Simmons, however (with Al-Farouq Aminu thrown in to even salaries), accomplishes quite a bit for both teams. The Sixers get a knockdown off-the-dribble shooter for the end of the shot clock, and while LaVine isn’t quite the playmaker that some of the other guards I’ve mentioned are, he’s quietly improved in this area. On a Bulls offense devoid of threats, he still managed to be a potent offensive weapon this past season and made his first All-Star team. No, LaVine is not a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, but replacing Simmons with him makes it easier for the Sixers to play their Greens and Thybulles.
And from Chicago’s perspective, Simmons can be the guy he never could be in Philly. The Bulls’ center, Nikola Vucevic, is a deadly shooter comfortable operating from the elbows, which gives Simmons plenty of room to roam closer to the rim … whether from the dunker spot, posting up guards or slashing off the dribble. The Bulls could use him as a screener and let him roll to the rim, a pathway never explored enough in Philly (it’s criminal the Sixers didn’t use him as a backup five when Embiid was off the floor), especially once Chicago brings in more shooting. Fortunately, the Bulls still have the cap flexibility to do this.
Meanwhile, LaVine for Simmons also helps reset the clock in Chicago. Simmons is signed for four more years and is 24 years old, so it buys the Bulls a bit more time to get everything right with what remains a pretty flawed roster. That’s probably a better idea than going all-in on this season just to keep LaVine happy and still quite possibly failing at it.
For as long as Vooch is the other star in the Windy City, Simmons also gives the Bulls an elite defender to pair next to him. That’s the thing: Simmons can help the right team a lot more than he helps the Sixers. Even after The Pass, for instance, Simmons picked Trae Young’s dribble twice in less than a minute. (Side note: It’s amazing Philadelphia didn’t take more advantage of him and Thybulle by pressing and trapping in non-desperation situations after it nearly stole them Game 1.)
So, LaVine for Simmons it is…
Or not.
The thing about trades is that they’re easy to drum up on your own but much harder to execute when two teams need to come to an agreement on value. There could be all kinds of reasons the Bulls don’t want to make a deal with Philly or the Sixers wouldn’t want to do a deal Chicago would find acceptable. The reality is that for every 100 trade calls we made in Memphis, maybe one or two of them yielded a transaction.
But in the wake of The Pass, one important dynamic of any Philly trade conversation has changed. Previously, a Simmons deal was something the Sixers could do. Now, it is something they must do.
Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
VIC 07
EV LA1 08
Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
Columbus 10
EV LA 11
Vancouver 11
Missoula 12
Portland 13, Spokane 13
St. Paul 14, Denver 14
WF Center 4/28/16; WF Center 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22;
Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; WF Center 9/7/24; WF Center 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Fire Doc. The team deserves better. He had a good run and has one Chip as a coach. Time to retire.
He's being linked to a bunch of teams currently.
https://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/tokyo-olympics-ben-simmons-76ers-teammate-matisse-thybulle-was-set-to-arrive-in-camp-as-boomers-await-a-crucial-ben-simmons-call-c-3248919
Tokyo Olympics: Ben Simmons 76ers teammate Matisse Thybulle set to arrive in camp as Simmons withdraws
Ben Simmons’ Philadelphia 76ers teammate Matisse Thybulle is expected to arrive in Australia’s pre-Olympic camp in LA on Wednesday, but Simmons has officially withdrawn from the Tokyo Games.
I mean, Ben didn't "throw" the series but he was totally non-existent and a waste of space on the floor. If Maxey was in they had a shot at pulling it out - the rookie.
WF Center 4/28/16; WF Center 4/29/16; Fenway Park 8/7/16; Fenway Park 9/2/18; Asbury Park 9/18/21; Camden 9/14/22;
Las Vegas 5/16/24; Las Vegas 5/18/24; WF Center 9/7/24; WF Center 9/9/24; Baltimore Arena 9/12/24
Tres Mtns - TLA 3/23/11; EV - Tower Theatre 6/25/11; Temple of the Dog - Tower Theatre 11/5/16
https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/sixers/marc-zumoff-retirement-letter