ATL - NBA to investigate Lowry/Ball deals for tampering, pg. 81

[skbucks1985]

Minnesota is one of the few rosters that actually makes a ton of sense as a Simmons landing spot. Edwards projects to be a good shooter and the rest of the starting unit is high volume + efficiency floor-spacers (KAT, Russell, Beasley) Plus, it'd allow us to swoop in and grab Naz Reid for Diakite and a future 2nd.

What are you sending to them though? Unless you think Malik Beasley's an All-Star caliber player and you do a framework of Simmons + Seth Curry for D'Angelo Russell and Beasley, Minnesota doesn't have a ton of win-now assets if we assume KAT and Edwards are untouchable.

They ain't trading Russell considering what they gave up plus the fact that he's KAT's BFF. I'm guessing as others have pointed out, they acquired Beverly as a more enticing win-now piece for Philly. Bev plus Beasley gives you the salary, throw in a 1st and I think that trade makes sense for both sides. If I'm Philly I would have shipped Simmons out for McCollum + picks weeks ago, but Morey's an idiot so instead of taking what he can get, he probably thinks he can still fleece some team for their All-Star plus a boatload of picks, and he'll stubbornly let this situation bleed into training camp.

Beasley + Beverly+ a first is probably among the lowest value deals I've seen suggested for Simmons. I agree with you that Morey is overvaluing Simmons, but if I were Philly I'd probably rather just keep Simmons around and see if a better deal comes along than take that one.

[DanoMac]

They must make replicas and sell them with discount for the european fans

https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-Championship-Basketball-Antetokounmpo-Collection/dp/B09BFMPXRL/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=bucks+championship+ring&qid=1629312789&sr=8-5

[Ron Swanson]

Philly absolutely can't afford to wait this out much longer though. Like, I've never seen both a coach (Doc) and star player (Embiid) so publicly throw a teammate under the bus like that. Simmons in return is approaching this like he's already gone and played his last game there. Morey approaches everything with a GM mindset but at some point you have to read the room and avoid dealing with the inevitable locker room implosion if you hang onto him.

[CharityStripe34]

Philly absolutely can't afford to wait this out much longer though. Like, I've never seen both a coach (Doc) and star player (Embiid) so publicly throw a teammate under the bus like that. Simmons in return is approaching this like he's already gone and played his last game there. Morey approaches everything with a GM mindset but at some point you have to read the room and avoid dealing with the inevitable locker room implosion if you hang onto him.

Yea, not sure why they’re slow roasting this one. The market for Simmons must be at an all time low. He’s super talented but mentally elsewhere, and teams must be leery of that as one of their potential franchise cornerstones.

[MiltownHawkeye]

The Ben Simmons situation is endlessly fascinating because I can't think of another time a team shopped a player due to poor performance, yet expected a star in return. What the Sixers probably realize but don't want to admit is that the time to get an actual star return for him was 1-2 years ago. Instead they clung onto the idea that Simmons is a genuine max talent until it came to a head and now teams don't seem to be interested outside of seeing if they can get a steal for him. The GM that gives up significant assets for him is probably going to be on the hot seat in two years and even at his best (e.g. running over bad teams in the regular season) I don't think he's THAT good to tie the fate of your job to.

I can't think of a bigger gift from the standpoint of a conference rival than the Sixers running that clown show back, essentially just swapping Dwight for Drummond. I find the idea that they can meaningfully raise his value during the regular season AND that some team will want to add him at the trade deadline kind of laughable.

[skbucks1985]

Philly absolutely can't afford to wait this out much longer though. Like, I've never seen both a coach (Doc) and star player (Embiid) so publicly throw a teammate under the bus like that. Simmons in return is approaching this like he's already gone and played his last game there. Morey approaches everything with a GM mindset but at some point you have to read the room and avoid dealing with the inevitable locker room implosion if you hang onto him.

I don't disagree with you on the macro point. Simmons probably should've already been traded. My only point is that if you gave me the binary choice of Beasley and Beverly or holding onto Simmons and seeing what the market is like as the season progresses, I'm choosing the latter. Because I think McCollum + picks or Wiggins + 2-3 of the young guys are both better deals for Philly than Beasley and Beverly and picks.

[raferfenix]

How many picks could / would Minny add to Beasley + Beverly?

I could see plenty of teams being willing to bet that the Wolves will stay bad or be bad again in the not too distant future.

[Ron Swanson]

I think the Sixers are a better team if you immediately swap him for Pat Bev and Malik Beasley, so I actually hope they don't trade him for better fitting pieces. I think they're at the point in their timeline where you have to start thinking about these next 2-3 years as your window before Embiid's body starts to break down. It's 7 years in and he hasn't gotten out of the 2nd round, and you just wasted what might be the best season of his career.

[skbucks1985]

I would agree that Philly is better with Beasley and Beverly, but the upgrade is relatively negligible and doesn't close the gap in any meaningful way with Milwaukee and Brooklyn

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

The Ben Simmons situation is endlessly fascinating because I can't think of another time a team shopped a player due to poor performance, yet expected a star in return. What the Sixers probably realize but don't want to admit is that the time to get an actual star return for him was 1-2 years ago. Instead they clung onto the idea that Simmons is a genuine max talent until it came to a head and now teams don't seem to be interested outside of seeing if they can get a steal for him. The GM that gives up significant assets for him is probably going to be on the hot seat in two years and even at his best (e.g. running over bad teams in the regular season) I don't think he's THAT good to tie the fate of your job to.

I can't think of a bigger gift from the standpoint of a conference rival than the Sixers running that clown show back, essentially just swapping Dwight for Drummond. I find the idea that they can meaningfully raise his value during the regular season AND that some team will want to add him at the trade deadline kind of laughable.

Yeah, I feel we should have been terrified of them over this stretch but it all went down hill (well as much as possible while still winning the conference) after the 7th KL bounce in game 7.

[HurricaneKid]

The Ben Simmons situation is endlessly fascinating because I can't think of another time a team shopped a player due to poor performance, yet expected a star in return. What the Sixers probably realize but don't want to admit is that the time to get an actual star return for him was 1-2 years ago. Instead they clung onto the idea that Simmons is a genuine max talent until it came to a head and now teams don't seem to be interested outside of seeing if they can get a steal for him. The GM that gives up significant assets for him is probably going to be on the hot seat in two years and even at his best (e.g. running over bad teams in the regular season) I don't think he's THAT good to tie the fate of your job to.

I can't think of a bigger gift from the standpoint of a conference rival than the Sixers running that clown show back, essentially just swapping Dwight for Drummond. I find the idea that they can meaningfully raise his value during the regular season AND that some team will want to add him at the trade deadline kind of laughable.

Yeah, I feel we should have been terrified of them over this stretch but it all went down hill (well as much as possible while still winning the conference) after the 7th KL bounce in game 7.

When they let Jimmy go and traded the farm to pay Toby 37m I think the whole thing came crashing down.

Simmons needs a Hou type team to play incredibly fast with 4 shooters. I think he can be successful but it's such a specific team type I don't see how Morey gets a suitable return.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[raferfenix]

Morey screwed up bad not trading Simmons last year.

He's negotiating with crazy initial offers like he always does and probably hoping something persuades Lillard to ask out sooner rather than later.

Portland for their part hasn't addressed any of their personnel issues aside from changing coaches. However even if Lillard asks out it seems like a big stretch for Morey to get enough pieces from a Simmons-based package to net that kind of return.

Either way Morey's best bet might be to try and rip off a team like the Wolves -- whose new owners (including Alex Rodriguez) may be interested in making a splash at the get go.

The Wolves control all their future firsts so could put together an aggressive trade package (for Simmons or someone else) if they were so inclined as well:

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed

[Ron Swanson]

Yep, the 1st round picks are what determines it. If I can nab even one lightly protected 1st from the franchise that's won 36, 19, and 23 games each of the last 3 seasons, then I pull the trigger on that deal asap. There's just as much of a chance that Simmons implodes in Minnesota and that pick immediately becomes a valuable trade asset at the deadline, depending on how far back they are in the standings.

[ReddoverKobe]

The Ben Simmons situation is endlessly fascinating because I can't think of another time a team shopped a player due to poor performance, yet expected a star in return. What the Sixers probably realize but don't want to admit is that the time to get an actual star return for him was 1-2 years ago. Instead they clung onto the idea that Simmons is a genuine max talent until it came to a head and now teams don't seem to be interested outside of seeing if they can get a steal for him. The GM that gives up significant assets for him is probably going to be on the hot seat in two years and even at his best (e.g. running over bad teams in the regular season) I don't think he's THAT good to tie the fate of your job to.

I can't think of a bigger gift from the standpoint of a conference rival than the Sixers running that clown show back, essentially just swapping Dwight for Drummond. I find the idea that they can meaningfully raise his value during the regular season AND that some team will want to add him at the trade deadline kind of laughable.

Its hilarious they think they were ever getting Dame for Simmons.

[MiltownHawkeye]

The Ben Simmons situation is endlessly fascinating because I can't think of another time a team shopped a player due to poor performance, yet expected a star in return. What the Sixers probably realize but don't want to admit is that the time to get an actual star return for him was 1-2 years ago. Instead they clung onto the idea that Simmons is a genuine max talent until it came to a head and now teams don't seem to be interested outside of seeing if they can get a steal for him. The GM that gives up significant assets for him is probably going to be on the hot seat in two years and even at his best (e.g. running over bad teams in the regular season) I don't think he's THAT good to tie the fate of your job to.

I can't think of a bigger gift from the standpoint of a conference rival than the Sixers running that clown show back, essentially just swapping Dwight for Drummond. I find the idea that they can meaningfully raise his value during the regular season AND that some team will want to add him at the trade deadline kind of laughable.

Yeah, I feel we should have been terrified of them over this stretch but it all went down hill (well as much as possible while still winning the conference) after the 7th KL bounce in game 7.

When they let Jimmy go and traded the farm to pay Toby 37m I think the whole thing came crashing down.

Simmons needs a Hou type team to play incredibly fast with 4 shooters. I think he can be successful but it's such a specific team type I don't see how Morey gets a suitable return.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

Yep, they were at their scariest when they were coming off of Simmons' rookie season where they had Marco/Ersan/Saric/Covington providing shooting and Simmons actually looked at the basket sometimes. Then they brought in Butler and I questioned the fit a little bit but he clearly brought a lot to the team.

Trading for the opportunity to overpay Harris was for sure the point that everything changed. They started prioritizing Big Names over players needed to make Embiid/Simmons fit, and hoped that talent would win out. Feels kinda 2000s Bucks-esque except without the top 10 player. And the fact they really haven't acquired a single starting guard since Jrue is some insane malpractice.

[theFireBlanket]

If Morey came to Milwaukee last year, Jrue & Khris would've been Rockets.

Harden would've blamed Giannis for losing the ECSF to Brooklyn. "Like I said, I actually work to have skills. JUST look at the free throws. We win the series if we could hit a free throw... withIn 10 seconds ... I told ya'll I was the MVP".

[Plossum]

If Morey came to Milwaukee last year, Jrue & Khris would've been Rockets.

Harden would've blamed Giannis for losing the ECSF to Brooklyn. "Like I said, I actually work to have skills. JUST look at the free throws. We win the series if we could hit a free throw... withIn 10 seconds ... I told ya'll I was the MVP".

Harden would’ve pulled a hammy at a Milwaukee strip club well before he made it to the ECSF.

[Plossum]

Morey is hoping someone gets itchy feet and pulls the trigger on a stupidly high priced package for Simmons. I think he’s willing to wait it out.

The real **** show will come if Simmons refuses to report to training camp.

[Fotis St]

If the Bulls manage to get Porzingis with a trade including Markannen sign & Trade and Kobi White ... they will be a major threat and a true contender to come out of the East. That is on paper, we have to watch how they operate BUT the talent is there...

Lonzo, Lavine, DeRozan , Porzingis , Vucevic

Caruso and Theis are nice players to have for defensive lineups too

Markannen S&T 4/100M + Kobi White for Porzingis works in the trade machine. Add some 1sts from Chicago if needed.

Bulls will be tough to beat, but I have faith in our Core to come out of the East & Repeat.

[RiotPunch]

If the Bulls manage to get Porzingis with a trade including Markannen sign & Trade and Kobi White ... they will be a major threat and a true contender to come out of the East. That is on paper, we have to watch how they operate BUT the talent is there...

Lonzo, Lavine, DeRozan , Porzingis , Vucevic

Caruso and Theis are nice players to have for defensive lineups too

Markannen S&T 4/100M + Kobi White for Porzingis works in the trade machine. Add some 1sts from Chicago if needed.

Bulls will be tough to beat, but I have faith in our Core to come out of the East & Repeat.

Theis is on the Rockets, and that team will give up a gazillion more points than they score.