shrink wrote:Simmons now says he wants to be the #1 option on offense surrounded by shooters.
I have to think that the Wolves front office want KAT (efficiency and match up nightmare) and Edwards (future superstar?) to be the top two offensive options. Russell may want Russell to have that role, but he and Beasley are going to expects their FGA’s because they are mainly on the court for offense, and continuing to be 20 PPG scorers get them paid.
We aren’t the team that keeps Simmons happy. And that’s scary, because we’ve seen he is willing to sacrifice the salary and not honor his contract if he is unhappy.
Source? I can't find where Simmons said that he wanted to be the 1st option, he just doesn't want to play with Embiid who's not a good transition player but a half court player, constantly playing in the post and is unwilling to be the roll man in the pick n roll. Simmons is right to want to play on-ball, he averaged 8 assists 2 seasons ago, that is hard on a starting lineup with iso guys like Embiid and Tobias.
Embiid's not like KAT, he can shoot the 3, but probably shouldn't shoot more than a couple per game because he's a beast inside. Meanwhile, KAT can spam pick n pop, DLo can spot up, Edwards's been a passable 3pt shooter last season already and is probably even better now. The 5th guy, be it McDaniels or Prince, can also shoot.
Simmons isn't stupid, he knows that there's no chance he fits on some other team if he doesn't manage to fit on the Wolves who can always have 4 shooters on the court with him, because there's no 3pt shooting center on KAT's level in the entire league. Does that lead to Simmons being the top scorer on the team? Highly unlikely, but it makes him involved on most offensive possessions instead of forcing him to play off-ball at the dunker spot or smth. KAT and Edwards would probably be in the low 20's when it comes to PPG, DLo around 20, Simmons like 17-18 with potentially double digit assists, which would probably satisfy his ego as he'd get the 'one of the league leaders in assists' and the 'offensive hub of the team' labels.
And if Simmons is unhappy, which I find highly unlikely, it is most likely because we're a lottery team that's supposed to go into another rebuild anyway, so trading him, KAT and the rest of the vets who won't be in future plans will be done regardless of Simmons' hypothetical unhappiness.
In that sense, all this isn't scary, the scary thing is not taking this risk, we need to shoot our shot with this trade, because without it, I see us most likely going into another rebuild in 1-3 years because KAT wants out to be on a playoff team.
