What pisses me off about Ben Simmons mock trades !! 😡

As you know, Ben Simmons is gonna be traded. The off-season is almost over (apart of small additions) and Ben is in every discussion, he is the only big move left to be done. Every big name that could have been moved announced that they wouldn’t be in an other team at the beginning of the season, which includes Beal who looks happy in Washington (for now on) and Lillard as I mentioned it in my article about him and Ben Simmons. He announced yesterday that he will be in Portland for the season opening in an Instagram post saying:

“back for more … #RipCity is my city “

Why I don’t think that a Simmons-Lillard trade won’t happen ?

So now that the Simmons-Lillard trade is compromised, we have the opportunity to see plenty of mock-trades concerning Simmons. And I’ve seen plenty of nonsensed ones. I’am going to develop my point around one mock trade but there are tons of them on social medias and everyone has is opinion about where he should be headed and for how much. Honestly, I do think that I almost saw every NBA teams having a Simmons mock-trade. Of course some a pure fiction (like the Nets or Lakers,…) and some are more valid (Timberwolves or Kings).

So, let’s jump into this mock trade :

Honestly I chose this one but I could have selected plenty of other ones. I saw a Siakam-Simmons one that is pretty similar. First, we have got to keep in mind that there is two values in trades. First a non-numerical one which is simply how good the player is, and how he can perform. The second one is the real value of the player aka his salary. That is why rookies often found themselves in trades because they have a high value while having a cheap contract. On this point some trades work (like this one).But you also have to consider if both teams would accept the trade and if the acquisitions fits their goals, for Phily they want to win a championship while Embiid is in his prime and I doubt that Wiggins and Wiseman are the missing pieces for the 76ers to be champions. All of that are making a potential two-team trade almost impossible to happen with Simmons. And that leads us to what pisses me off, to make the trade easier to happen and due to Ben Simmons incapability of being a shooting threat in offense, teams and fans are considering to make him play at the forward position (3 or 4).

Let me be clear about it, I do not believe in this idea, I would even say that it is stupid! Ben Simmons was a first pick, selected because he was a freak of nature at the point-guard position capable of giving loads of dimes while defending like a beast. A kind of “Magic Johnson” player, though Magic was able to lead his team in the playoffs while having a dominant center which now we know that Ben is incapable of doing (at least in Phily)… The commun point of those two players is that the are playing at the position where the players are the less athletic, of course we still are in the NBA so every players is a “freak” in his way, but point guards are usually the smaller players on the court, and they are mostly important for the difference that they can make by being smart on court than doing the difference with their physical aptitudes. And that is why Simmons is a real difference maker, he can impact the game intellectually and physically and even if people are making fun of him we have got to give him credit for that.

So, moving him to the forward position would be a huge mistake, of course he will be able to be a really good defensive addition, that is because he simply is a good defender. But at the same time he will be facing player with equivalent physical capabilities than him and his real advantage won’t be one anymore. In that scenario he will become a non-shooting “Jaylen Brown” which will be worse because is lack of shooting will be even more exposed, especially in the playoffs. All of that without mentioning that he is a ball-dominant player and that he needs the ball to exist, which he will have way less if he is on the wing and his usage rate would decrease a lot, he will need time to adapt to his new team systems and offensive mouvements which can also decrease is efficiency in games.

Simmons shooting form in ASG, are you convinced that he can be a wing ?

I really want to see Ben get traded in a team that will make him play point guard and exploit all his value. I would be sad to see him getting move the the wing and I would consider that as a failure for him and the team that acquired him. Maybe Philadelphia wasn’t the place for him to explose, which can be understandable when you see how many first pick that they fucked (Fultz for example)! Maybe he will prosper in is future team and will make them playoffs contender because we have got to keep in mind that he isn’t in his prime yet, he is only 25 and he still has a lot to prove and I don’t want to call it a bust yet. Maybe this year’s playoffs were his “Tragic Johnson” moment and that he will get over it this season.

So what is your opinion about him playing the forward position ? Am I completely wrong about it ? Thank you for according me your time and if you enjoyed my article pleaser consider subscribing. I’ll see you soon for an other NBA article.