shrink wrote:Merc_Porto wrote:I'm just tired of mediocrity, or treadmill territory for a franchise that has 1 playoffs appearance (1st round exit) in the last 15 years or something.
I completely agree with being tired of the mediocrity - heck, the losing. I And1’d your post because it totally represents how I feel. However, we are only going to improve the team by looking at players rationally. We can’t let our desperation blind us to realities. Saying, “he’s fine to play for other teams” is just wishful thinking - the evidence does not provide any certainty.
Every player brings risks. There is the potential for injuries, for lack of perforce, for meltdowns, for getting into trouble. Ben Simmons has great strengths that people love (defense, passing), but he has great weaknesses as well (never been able to shoot, pressure situations). On top of this, now you have a huge additional risk that no other player since Larry Sanders has shown - he is producing nothing because he is either emotionally incapable of playing basketball, OR he is simply willing to not honor contracts. This is one of the riskiest players I’ve ever seen, sitting on a potentially crippling four year max deal.
Maybe if he was traded here, he learns to shoot, pressure situations never bother him again, he is always mentally prepared to play basketball and he never again refuses to honor his contract. If that happened, he’d be a fantastic addition that would boost us out of mediocrity. We want to believe it. But that’s still wishful thinking, and wishful thinking is what has kept us in the basement for so long (Wiggins contract, for example).
Fair enough but I think you are taking too far the lack of shooting by Ben. We already talked about this.
You don't need Ben shooting the ball for a team to be successful, you can live with one non-shooter on the floor, especially when you have a big man in KAT that loves to live in the 3pt point line.
Ben gives so much more than defense and passing (playmaking), which are two things that we would improve a lot by adding him.
The lack of IQ of this team and the fact that this team lives and dies by their shooting nights would completely change.
Would open a lot more possibilities.
And of course, at the end of the day, is the talent of Ben, he would be automatically our best - second-best player without any question.
But once again, there is no way we can get him, is pretty obvious what Philly wants and they are not taking DLO, McDaniels, and Beasley. They weren't gonna take that kind of package at the beginning of the season, leave alone now.
