Is anyone else as sus on the Simons injury as I am?

[DusterBuster]

Goes out 5min into a game with a mysterious chest injury, then someone more connect than I am tell me, has there been any update on his injury…. What it was, timeline to come back, etc? I’ve heard nothing. Has anyone heard anything at all.

This is feeling more and more like an “injury” vs an injury. Assuming rumors are true from what Goldbum said, it’s hard not to connect dots here he’s sitting for them to find a deal. Simons hasn’t been the most healthy player in the world, so it would make sense he wouldn’t want to risk it for a team he’s looking to be moved from.

I just can’t recall a player going out like this and having zero update on them from anyone. Especially a honk like Marang who lives and breathes Blazers. He also loved Simons as a person and player. Him being this quiet speaks volumes imo.

[Shem]

It's not an injury. It was an illness. People speculated it was an injury during the game he exited. But it was later confirmed that he was sick.

[The Sebastian Express]

They're not going to make up 'short of breath' and illness involving 'short of breath' for a young athlete to try to sit him while finding a trade. They'd do something much less worrisome.

[DusterBuster]

These are all fair, I guess I’m just surprised how little follow up I’ve seen about it…. I never even saw the confirmation about an illness.

[JRoy]

Blazers much more watchable with he and Ayton out.

[Norm2953]

It does make you wonder what the team really thinks if the team starts winning games without
these "star" players. Team has a functional bench with TL, Deni, Banton and could play Kris
and Rayan and not be hurt if they get minutes with Reath getting minutes when TL sits.

[zzaj]

I've been wondering about this too, as I missed the game in which he left.

It is strange to be out this long with a mysterious chest illness. The shots of him on the bench in street clothes in yesterday's game vs. ATL, he did NOT look happy (or well, for that matter).

Also, what is Ayton's injury? I somehow missed that too, as I've been out of town for a week...

[Walton1one]

One of the rumors was he had a panic attack and has been dealing with anxiety. I find that questionable, I think it could just be an excuse to keep him out of the lineup for a longer time until they can trade him away.

One of the potential problems is there are a lot of players (80) ineligible for trade until December 15th, so it may take until sometime after then before Simons (or other players) are dealt.

Gary Harris\ORL for example is one such player.

[JRoy]

Hopefully taking the time to pack his bags.

[valleyman33]

Watching how the team plays defense without Simmons just shows how much of liability he is on defense. If he is not scoring a ton, he should no be out there taking minutes away from more capable players. He single handedly lost two games for us down the stretch, in one game he made 4 consecutive turnovers at the end of the game. Limit his minutes and keep him on the bench.

[BlazersBroncos]

Watching how the team plays defense without Simmons just shows how much of liability he is on defense. If he is not scoring a ton, he should no be out there taking minutes away from more capable players. He single handedly lost two games for us down the stretch, in one game he made 4 consecutive turnovers at the end of the game. Limit his minutes and keep him on the bench.

I dont even want him off the bench. I will take the 6'8 guy who is a bit of a chucker and at least has length on defense (Albeit he isnt a good IQ defender) over the 6'3 guy who is a chucker and is even worse on defense.

Give him away.

[DusterBuster]

Watching how the team plays defense without Simmons just shows how much of liability he is on defense. If he is not scoring a ton, he should no be out there taking minutes away from more capable players. He single handedly lost two games for us down the stretch, in one game he made 4 consecutive turnovers at the end of the game. Limit his minutes and keep him on the bench.

I dont even want him off the bench. I will take the 6'8 guy who is a bit of a chucker and at least has length on defense (Albeit he isnt a good IQ defender) over the 6'3 guy who is a chucker and is even worse on defense.

Give him away.

It's funny, the league has changed so much even from the 20-teens. Most teams are allergic to having a single player on the floor under 6'5" at this point.

[JasonStern]

Victory lap for me. I told you all that Sharpe was legit.

Everyone: Why is that? Say it, J. Eat some crow!

Because Simons isn't out there chucking.

Everyone: Yay!

The Simons hate is overdone, but I don't think he gets back in a trade what most fans are hoping for. He's, again, a short version of Jamal Crawford.

Everyone: Wasn't Crawford a 6th man off the bench?

And I don't think anyone is in disagreement that Simons would be much more useful and likeable as a 6th man off of the bench. But I don't see any point in trading him for, at best, a late first and salary filler.

Respect to Banton. Had zero expectations for him, and he massively exceeded all of them.

Also Cling Kong looking like a great pick. Him and Timelord playing together is an amazing center combo.

But, then we still have Ayton, who "runs" the 100m in 40 seconds. Kind of a problem with a 24 second shot clock. Shout out to Phoenix fans that warned us - solid when motivated, and a massive liability when not. Problem there is that I don't see any team dumb enough to take on the $70M (less this year prorated) salary owed when Home Depot still has those collapsible metal chairs for $20.

[Pattycakes]

Victory lap for me. I told you all that Sharpe was legit.

Everyone: Why is that? Say it, J. Eat some crow!

Because Simons isn't out there chucking.

Everyone: Yay!

The Simons hate is overdone, but I don't think he gets back in a trade what most fans are hoping for. He's, again, a short version of Jamal Crawford.

Everyone: Wasn't Crawford a 6th man off the bench?

And I don't think anyone is in disagreement that Simons would be much more useful and likeable as a 6th man off of the bench. But I don't see any point in trading him for, at best, a late first and salary filler.

Respect to Banton. Had zero expectations for him, and he massively exceeded all of them.

Also Cling Kong looking like a great pick. Him and Timelord playing together is an amazing center combo.

But, then we still have Ayton, who "runs" the 100m in 40 seconds. Kind of a problem with a 24 second shot clock. Shout out to Phoenix fans that warned us - solid when motivated, and a massive liability when not. Problem there is that I don't see any team dumb enough to take on the $70M (less this year prorated) salary owed when Home Depot still has those collapsible metal chairs for $20.

Simons is a poor man’s Crawford, if even that. Don’t like the comparison. There’s more equal chuckers.

[DusterBuster]

Victory lap for me. I told you all that Sharpe was legit.

Everyone: Why is that? Say it, J. Eat some crow!

Because Simons isn't out there chucking.

Everyone: Yay!

The Simons hate is overdone, but I don't think he gets back in a trade what most fans are hoping for. He's, again, a short version of Jamal Crawford.

Everyone: Wasn't Crawford a 6th man off the bench?

And I don't think anyone is in disagreement that Simons would be much more useful and likeable as a 6th man off of the bench. But I don't see any point in trading him for, at best, a late first and salary filler.

Respect to Banton. Had zero expectations for him, and he massively exceeded all of them.

Also Cling Kong looking like a great pick. Him and Timelord playing together is an amazing center combo.

But, then we still have Ayton, who "runs" the 100m in 40 seconds. Kind of a problem with a 24 second shot clock. Shout out to Phoenix fans that warned us - solid when motivated, and a massive liability when not. Problem there is that I don't see any team dumb enough to take on the $70M (less this year prorated) salary owed when Home Depot still has those collapsible metal chairs for $20.

Simons is a poor man’s Crawford, if even that. Don’t like the comparison. There’s more equal chuckers.

Let's not go overboard with the Crawford revisionist history. Crawford and Simons are actually pretty comparable players in almost all aspects aside from physical height.

To JS's post... there's a reason I'm saying trade Simons and Ayton for literally anything. I couldn't give two **** if they get a 1st rounder back for either. They're both addition by subtraction players. Just find a taker and take back whatever. Even taking back a "bad" contract wouldn't likely interfere with resigning anyone.

[Case2012]

We all know Sharpe is talented, but I want to see a consistent motor. I still don't think he's a number one option, more like 2 or 3. We need Flagg... and probably an upgrade at pg. Scoot doesn't have the IT factor, sadly. Decent player, good guy, but you need a mean SOB to run your team. I could see Flagg actually running the point, he has that kind of vision.

Btw Simons is not in the same stadium as Crawford, who has one of the best handles of all time. He's a legendary shot creator, both in the NBA and rec circuit. How many 6th man awards did he win? Simons has accomplished nothing, and he never will. He's a high volume player that's really inefficient. You could give anyone in the league that many touches and they would put up similar numbers.

When was the last time he even had one of those insane microwave scoring games? Or do you think he's just checked out and that's the reason?

[Walton1one]

Watching how the team plays defense without Simmons just shows how much of liability he is on defense. If he is not scoring a ton, he should no be out there taking minutes away from more capable players. He single handedly lost two games for us down the stretch, in one game he made 4 consecutive turnovers at the end of the game. Limit his minutes and keep him on the bench.

I dont even want him off the bench. I will take the 6'8 guy who is a bit of a chucker and at least has length on defense (Albeit he isnt a good IQ defender) over the 6'3 guy who is a chucker and is even worse on defense.

Give him away.

How about neither of them (Simons\Banton)?

[JRoy]

We all know Sharpe is talented, but I want to see a consistent motor. I still don't think he's a number one option, more like 2 or 3. We need Flagg... and probably an upgrade at pg. Scoot doesn't have the IT factor, sadly. Decent player, good guy, but you need a mean SOB to run your team. I could see Flagg actually running the point, he has that kind of vision.

Btw Simons is not in the same stadium as Crawford, who has one of the best handles of all time. He's a legendary shot creator, both in the NBA and rec circuit. How many 6th man awards did he win? Simons has accomplished nothing, and he never will. He's a high volume player that's really inefficient. You could give anyone in the league that many touches and they would put up similar numbers.

When was the last time he even had one of those insane microwave scoring games? Or do you think he's just checked out and that's the reason?

I don’t think Scoot is even a decent player.

[Case2012]

We all know Sharpe is talented, but I want to see a consistent motor. I still don't think he's a number one option, more like 2 or 3. We need Flagg... and probably an upgrade at pg. Scoot doesn't have the IT factor, sadly. Decent player, good guy, but you need a mean SOB to run your team. I could see Flagg actually running the point, he has that kind of vision.

Btw Simons is not in the same stadium as Crawford, who has one of the best handles of all time. He's a legendary shot creator, both in the NBA and rec circuit. How many 6th man awards did he win? Simons has accomplished nothing, and he never will. He's a high volume player that's really inefficient. You could give anyone in the league that many touches and they would put up similar numbers.

When was the last time he even had one of those insane microwave scoring games? Or do you think he's just checked out and that's the reason?

I don’t think Scoot is even a decent player.

You need to give him a consistent starting role to see that, but yeah, he's been average to below average to say the least.Trading your teams all time greatest player for a backup is pathetic. I really don't like the aloof, unserious personalities we've assembled.If Scoot had Banton's motor we'd be seeing a future all star.

[DusterBuster]

We all know Sharpe is talented, but I want to see a consistent motor. I still don't think he's a number one option, more like 2 or 3. We need Flagg... and probably an upgrade at pg. Scoot doesn't have the IT factor, sadly. Decent player, good guy, but you need a mean SOB to run your team. I could see Flagg actually running the point, he has that kind of vision.

Btw Simons is not in the same stadium as Crawford, who has one of the best handles of all time. He's a legendary shot creator, both in the NBA and rec circuit. How many 6th man awards did he win? Simons has accomplished nothing, and he never will. He's a high volume player that's really inefficient. You could give anyone in the league that many touches and they would put up similar numbers.

When was the last time he even had one of those insane microwave scoring games? Or do you think he's just checked out and that's the reason?

I don’t think Scoot is even a decent player.

Scoot has all the physical talents to be more than a decent player. His BBIQ however is astonishingly low. He can make some impressive passes here and there, but it feels more like its an fast reaction in the moment move vs true instinctive pass like the truly great PGs have. This is admittedly totally antidotal and on my personal "feel" for the game after decades of watching, but I don't see a player who the game comes naturally to. That's a thing for the greats and the OK's.

I don't think Scoot is destined to be a Fultz-level NBA burnout, but the pre-draft talk of him being Derrick Rose 2.0 is d.e.a.d. dead. I don't even see him ever being an All Star level PG at this point. I'm a firm believer that you see that early. It's just not there imo. Happy to eat crow, but man it's not there.

Allllllll that said, if he can be decent and there is high level talent around him, I think he can still be serviceable and maybe turn into a niche PG like a Rondo stye PG. Granted, Rondo was a AS, but that was a different era of the NBA. I don't think Rondo, even at his peak, would crack an ASG in todays NBA (outside of rando factors like team record and/or injuries).