Sixers Suspend Ben Simmons For One Game

[Pointgod]

I don't see what Morey is doing anything wrong. The offers aren't there. Future picks really mean nothing unless you can some type of value on them (aka right after draft lottery). Like Pelican's didn't to trade with Lakers during the middle of the season for AD. All of the sudden the lakers 10-12 overall 1st round project picked jumped up to overall number 4 pick. Plus Pelicans got overall 1 pick. That changed the dynamics how they were able to trade AD. Just simply facts.

People can't reward bad behavior from players under contracts. It may work when a player has 1 year left like AD/Leonard. It may even work with 2 years left (harden/Kyrie). Maybe 2.5 years (Vince Carter). But this is a whole new level with 4 max years left.

If the offers aren't good enough to improve the team or even keep the team sideways. Why do the trade? Cause Simmons is a distraction and a cry baby who wants out? You don't reward that by selling Simmons for 20 cents on the dollar.

I'd rather them clear his entire salary, waive him and he can try to find if he can make up that guarantee 4/140 million.

Along a similar line of thinking, if your goal is championship or bust, which is essentially the Hinkie/Morey attitude, you're not going to take some of the trades floated over the summer for mediocre role players / picks that aren't going to get you a ring anyway. Better to keep Ben on ice and hope that some other team's star asks out or some other team gets desperate and give you more.

The problem is that Simmons is tanking his value so hard right now that you're going to have to attach significant depth and draft picks along with him for whichever star player becomes available.

Morey should have traded Simmons immediately before the draft and accumulated prospects and draft capital for when a star player does become available. That ship has sailed now. Teams that may have been interested in Simmons aren't going to pay top dollar for a locker room cancer.

Yeah Sixers fans are high as hell if they believe that:
1. A team wouldn’t have better offers if their star asks out and
2. They wouldn’t be the team adding 3 first round picks and 3 pick swaps to move Ben Simmons, that’s if the team is even interested in him.

[kuclas]

Will Simmons accept a buyout of $0? He can go to any team he wants. He will need to recoup his entire 140 million by his own merits. If he's that hard on never playing for the sixers. I think that's a fair compromise.

[Bum Adebayo]

Spoiler:

Will Simmons accept a buyout of $0? He can go to any team he wants. He will need to recoup his entire 140 million by his own merits. If he's that hard on never playing for the sixers. I think that's a fair compromise.

He won't, because he could've already done so by signing a qualifying offer instead of the 5-year contract he signed, he has wanted out of Sixers for a long time now, this "being thrown under the bus" thing is just the excuse to get out of here. He wanted both the money and the perfect situation.

[AI_Efficiency]

Along a similar line of thinking, if your goal is championship or bust, which is essentially the Hinkie/Morey attitude, you're not going to take some of the trades floated over the summer for mediocre role players / picks that aren't going to get you a ring anyway. Better to keep Ben on ice and hope that some other team's star asks out or some other team gets desperate and give you more.

The problem is that Simmons is tanking his value so hard right now that you're going to have to attach significant depth and draft picks along with him for whichever star player becomes available.

Morey should have traded Simmons immediately before the draft and accumulated prospects and draft capital for when a star player does become available. That ship has sailed now. Teams that may have been interested in Simmons aren't going to pay top dollar for a locker room cancer.

Yeah Sixers fans are high as hell if they believe that:
1. A team wouldn’t have better offers if their star asks out and
2. They wouldn’t be the team adding 3 first round picks and 3 pick swaps to move Ben Simmons, that’s if the team is even interested in him.

The sixers took the gamble that a star player like Lillard, Beal or someone random would get disgruntled and ask out. That wasn't the case around draft time. They could have dealt Simmons for some picks earlier, and was there a risk that they could get less picks down the road, sure. I still think it was worth the gamble that a team gets desperate and wants the optics of adding an all-star in Simmons (Simmons salary may also make such a trade easier). I also don't know that Simmons is tanking is value much worse than after the playoffs when he just collapsed in the Hawks series. His value tanks if teams perceive that the sixers need to trade him immediately which isn't necessarily the case. I guess on some level maybe other teams will be scared off by this immaturity lowing his value a bit. Idk if by a material amount though.

Separately, I agree Sixers will need to add picks / young players like Thybulle or Maxey if a big name becomes available. Agree that a team isn't going to want to trade their disgruntled star for Simmons straight up.

[rzzzzz]

Funny when you think about it. Ben won’t play. Doc throws him out. And he loses the money he showed up to get. Unless he gets traded right away, his representation is finally going to tell him the same stuff that got him back into town. So next he’ll have to show up and show some effort. And after going round that for a while, he’ll be on the bench, getting mop up minutes. Unless he really plays. Man, don’t trade him too quick. This is good stuff!

[KingFox]

Hes just gonna act like a brat until he gets his way. And he's gonna do it again if he gets traded to a city he doesnt like.
I hope teams know what theyre getting themselves into

This is the key here. I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole right now, and I’m being dead serious. Talk about risky

[Nate505]

Hes just gonna act like a brat until he gets his way. And he's gonna do it again if he gets traded to a city he doesnt like.
I hope teams know what theyre getting themselves into

This is the key here. I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole right now, and I’m being dead serious. Talk about risky

Yup, he's a malcontent. A talented one, but a malcontent. And frankly, he's not a good enough malcontent to be worth it. It's not like he's a Top 10 player in the league or anything.

[KingFox]

Hes just gonna act like a brat until he gets his way. And he's gonna do it again if he gets traded to a city he doesnt like.
I hope teams know what theyre getting themselves into

This is the key here. I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole right now, and I’m being dead serious. Talk about risky

Yup, he's a malcontent. A talented one, but a malcontent. And frankly, he's not a good enough malcontent to be worth it. It's not like he's a Top 10 player in the league or anything.

Exactly my thoughts. You let him get his way now and he will absolutely pull this crap again, whether it be next year or 3 years from now. It’s simply not worth the headache or money and i doubt there would even be much of a honeymoon period to enjoy whenever Ben Simmons arrives with all his baggage, wherever he ends up.

[BlazersBroncos]

This is the key here. I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole right now, and I’m being dead serious. Talk about risky

Yup, he's a malcontent. A talented one, but a malcontent. And frankly, he's not a good enough malcontent to be worth it. It's not like he's a Top 10 player in the league or anything.

Exactly my thoughts. You let him get his way now and he will absolutely pull this crap again, whether it be next year or 3 years from now. It’s simply not worth the headache or money and i doubt there would even be much of a honeymoon period to enjoy whenever Ben Simmons arrives with all his baggage, wherever he ends up.

Yep. This isnt just an issue with Ben being mad about the post playoff treatment. This is Ben Simmons as a person, as a human. He has displayed these traits since HS. He has not matured a bit since LSU. He is what he is, a tremendous physical talent with nice handles and vision for his size in the open court and little if any interest in getting better at the things he absolutely STINKS at. He isnt about winning, he isnt about improving, he isnt even about getting out of PHI per se. He is about Ben Simmons, he will always be about Ben Simmons and he will continue to be an aloof malcontent with no passion for the game regardless of where he ends up.

[ANTETOKOUNBROS]

Can't recall a superstar in recent memory as truly unlikeable as Ben Simmons is for me as of today. He is not good as he thinks he is.

[G R E Y]

It's interesting how players who are in these types of situations respond with their dominant traits:

- Butler went full aggressive mode, blasting everyone he outworked.

- #2 went mute and AWOL.

- Irving went (more) weird.

- Ben is going passive aggressive.

I don't understand Morey's insistence on such a high asking price, particularly the number of picks. And if he's trying to acquire them to eventually be able to trade them to a team that has an upper echelon star, well, Dame's already said he's staying put, and the Wizards have put more talent around Beal. Plus, say some upper echelon star does want out, why wouldn't a team with multiple picks just keep them for said star if every team is operating under hypotheticals?

And this isn't to justify what Ben is doing in any way, but I really don't think that potentially subjecting him to a hostile fanbase is constructive in any way. He's being an ass and paying for it by not being paid. Having him play in games to 'try and make it work' is truly just lip service that paves the way to publicly humiliate someone. This is not the way, regardless of how or to whatever greater extent the team is in the right.

Make no mistake, if this were Embiid that wanted out, this would not be playing out the same way. Harden, after all, was so over-catered to by Morey in Houston it created an unhealthy culture and forced some trades that didn't actually help the team. So it's not all about doing the right thing with Ben, but an additional layer of toxicity spilling out. Morey is able to do this because Embiid is the franchise player and he's fine with shunning a player who doesn't want to be there. But if it were the franchise player himself who wanted out this badly, well Morey's already shown that he'd act differently. Also, the second Embiid gets sick of the antics, the faster a deal gets done.

I get that this is mostly on Ben, but I'm uncomfortable with the extra digs being taken that are available. Just because they're there, doesn't mean they should be used. As an organization, there has to be an operational ethos beyond 'Nah **** you you'll show up and play because it's in your contract.' Ben has burned all bridges, but I do think an organization has some type responsibility to be the bigger entity and it doesn't seem to be unfolding this way.

The asking price is so high as to indicate to teams they're not really negotiating in good faith and actually want a deal done. So matching a highly disgruntled player tit-for-tat feels like a huge drag on a team long-term. It's hard to see a positive with this back-and-forth dynamic being played out.

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[MVP1992]

I may have missed it, but other than not being engaged and being told to bugger off from practice, what was the "incident" ?

[whatisacenter]

I may have missed it, but other than not being engaged and being told to bugger off from practice, what was the "incident" ?

Ben punched Doc's mom in the face.

[AingesBurner]

I may have missed it, but other than not being engaged and being told to bugger off from practice, what was the "incident" ?

Wouldn't participate in practice.

[DusterBuster]

I get that this is mostly on Ben, but I'm uncomfortable with the extra digs being taken that are available. Just because they're there, doesn't mean they should be used. As an organization, there has to be an operational ethos beyond 'Nah **** you you'll show up and play because it's in your contract.' Ben has burned all bridges, but I do think an organization has some type responsibility to be the bigger entity and it doesn't seem to be unfolding this way.

The asking price is so high as to indicate to teams they're not really negotiating in good faith and actually want a deal done. So matching a highly disgruntled player tit-for-tat feels like a huge drag on a team long-term. It's hard to see a positive with this back-and-forth dynamic being played out.

These last two points are so good. Ben has plenty of blame, but I have it pretty close to 50/50 on Ben and on Morey. Maybe a little more on Ben, but Morey's ego truly does make for a bit of a hostile take-no-prisoners management style. He did that in Houston and he's clearly taken that to Philly. When he created a toxic situation in Houston and realized there was no way out, what did he do? He freaking resigned and left someone else to clean up the mess. So yeah, no one should be giving Morey a pass in this what-so-ever. Happy to see some Sixer fans seeing that as well.

And yeah, it's clear he's not been negotiating in good faith all summer. I don't know if it was him overvaluing Ben and not realizing how badly last post-season hurt his value, maybe he never wanted to trade Ben in the first place so he was really just "pretend" shopping him to placate Simmons and Klutch... then when a deal came he could say "Sorry, we couldn't find a deal. /shrug Just play for us this season and we'll definitely keep shopping you throughout the year!"... I tend to kinda think that might have been his plan all along, and maybe he would have kept shopping him throughout the season if he had just reported to camp and manned up. Although Simmons and his camp also may have not felt Morey was acting in good faith with that either... Also not too far fetched.

It's really hard to guess where this goes. Like I said, I could see it possibly going to litigation... but the NBA and the Sixers FO may step in before that. Maybe they have Morey resign and fall on the sword since he botched up their side so poorly? Maybe the FO backs him and gives no ish if Klutch wants to go that route?

It's certainly an interesting slow-motion car wreck.

[Nuntius]

Don't take it as hating on your volume. Just saying when you post as much as you do, you're bound to make a ton of hyperbolic posts yourself. What seemed odd is that you thought it was necessary to call out a hyperbole for saying Ben Simmons is one of the most unprofessional athletes with this move. You didn't disagree -- you told me "there is no need for this kind of hyperbole". Don't be a jerk and then get surprised when people don't respond kindly.

I don't see how saying "there is no need for this kind of hyperbole" makes one a jerk.

You also think we ought to live under an anarcho-communist system so I don’t really care for, or respect your viewpoints.

And btw, the post got like 50 upvotes, so he’s not in a position to say what is needed and not. I’m not surprised to see you here to rinse his pole, though.

Right, so it's exactly like I thought it was. You have a personal issue with Texas Chuck (just like you have a personal issue with me) because you disagree politically and that is why you interpreted his post as an insult. Your reaction had nothing to do with the content of his post. It had everything to do with who posted it.

[Nuntius]

Would the Pacers even make that trade at this point?

As -Luke- pointed out, we can no longer trade Brogdon this year so even if we would make that deal, we're not allowed to.

Ignoring the CBA issues though, would the Pacers make that trade for Simmons if they even could?

Honestly, who knows? The FO definitely seemed interested to do this move earlier but the fanbase was always kinda split. Maybe? I can't say for sure.

[leolozon]

I get that this is mostly on Ben, but I'm uncomfortable with the extra digs being taken that are available. Just because they're there, doesn't mean they should be used. As an organization, there has to be an operational ethos beyond 'Nah **** you you'll show up and play because it's in your contract.' Ben has burned all bridges, but I do think an organization has some type responsibility to be the bigger entity and it doesn't seem to be unfolding this way.

The asking price is so high as to indicate to teams they're not really negotiating in good faith and actually want a deal done. So matching a highly disgruntled player tit-for-tat feels like a huge drag on a team long-term. It's hard to see a positive with this back-and-forth dynamic being played out.

These last two points are so good. Ben has plenty of blame, but I have it pretty close to 50/50 on Ben and on Morey. Maybe a little more on Ben, but Morey's ego truly does make for a bit of a hostile take-no-prisoners management style. He did that in Houston and he's clearly taken that to Philly. When he created a toxic situation in Houston and realized there was no way out, what did he do? He freaking resigned and left someone else to clean up the mess. So yeah, no one should be giving Morey a pass in this what-so-ever. Happy to see some Sixer fans seeing that as well.

And yeah, it's clear he's not been negotiating in good faith all summer. I don't know if it was him overvaluing Ben and not realizing how badly last post-season hurt his value, maybe he never wanted to trade Ben in the first place so he was really just "pretend" shopping him to placate Simmons and Klutch... then when a deal came he could say "Sorry, we couldn't find a deal. /shrug Just play for us this season and we'll definitely keep shopping you throughout the year!"... I tend to kinda think that might have been his plan all along, and maybe he would have kept shopping him throughout the season if he had just reported to camp and manned up. Although Simmons and his camp also may have not felt Morey was acting in good faith with that either... Also not too far fetched.

It's really hard to guess where this goes. Like I said, I could see it possibly going to litigation... but the NBA and the Sixers FO may step in before that. Maybe they have Morey resign and fall on the sword since he botched up their side so poorly? Maybe the FO backs him and gives no ish if Klutch wants to go that route?

It's certainly an interesting slow-motion car wreck.

Morey's job isn't to please Simmons, it's to help the Sixers win and find the best package for Simmons. If he has to sit Simmons until the trade deadline and it's not a distraction to the team, then he should.

I guess he thought it would be best for everyone if Simmons came back for a while. Simmons gets paid and can bring his value back up, while the Sixers have more time. He probably thought everyone is an adult and can behave, but I guess Simmons couldn't. Simmons does appear immature in the situation.

In the end, Morey probably misread the situation, but it's hard to fault him for trying to get as much value as he can.

[Mauro Pedrosa]

Not really pennies on the dollar though when just a couple of weeks ago they were asking for CJ + 6 first round picks/swaps as though they were dealing Anthony Davis.

Morey is just incredibly greedy, and his greediness is being punished right now.

Have you seen some of the packages people expected them to take I understand hes asking for too much but at the same time you cnt expect him to just take the garbage thrown his way.

CJ + a pick or two for Ben was always a fair framework that would have benefitted both teams. But Morey got greedy and asked for 6 picks/swaps. . I think Covington was involved too, to boot. That's the kind of brazen greed that insults the GMs you're negotiating with and removes them from the table.

100%

I wonder if the Blazers refuse to talk to Philly if Lillard demands a trade, just out of spite

[EmperorLocky]

I can't imagine any team wanting to take on Simmons now. If it's not LA he'll end up pulling the same crap.

I was glad he elected not to play for the boomers last Olympics due to his attitude but he well and truly needed to to learn how to play in a team environment where the team is always the greater good. Personal achievements come second. That said with his attitude I think he still would have been detrimental to the boomers team culture.

I have zero issue with Doc and Embiids comment post playoff exit. Great players accept their failures and that drives them to be better. Simons will never be that player.

Honestly if there is a way to do it is love Philly to take him to court. Remove his contract and also put out an injunction on him to play for any NBA team up until the date his contract would end.